Book contents
- The Cambridge Handbook of Natural Law and Human Rights
- The Cambridge Handbook of Natural Law and Human Rights
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Natural Law and the Origins of Human Rights
- Part II Natural Law Foundations of Human Rights Obligations
- Part III Natural Law and Human Rights within Religious Traditions
- Part IV The Human Person, Political Community, and Rule of Law
- 18 Human Dignity and Natural Law
- 19 Civic Friendship, Natural Law, and Natural Rights
- 20 Common Goods, Group Rights, and Human Rights
- 21 Natural Law, Human Rights, and the Separation of Powers
- 22 Human Goods and Human Rights Law
- 23 Natural Law, Human Rights, and Jus Cogens
- Part V Rival Interpretations and Interpretive Principles
- Part VI Challenges and Future Prospects
- Index
22 - Human Goods and Human Rights Law
Two Modes of Derivation from Natural Law
from Part IV - The Human Person, Political Community, and Rule of Law
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 November 2022
- The Cambridge Handbook of Natural Law and Human Rights
- The Cambridge Handbook of Natural Law and Human Rights
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Natural Law and the Origins of Human Rights
- Part II Natural Law Foundations of Human Rights Obligations
- Part III Natural Law and Human Rights within Religious Traditions
- Part IV The Human Person, Political Community, and Rule of Law
- 18 Human Dignity and Natural Law
- 19 Civic Friendship, Natural Law, and Natural Rights
- 20 Common Goods, Group Rights, and Human Rights
- 21 Natural Law, Human Rights, and the Separation of Powers
- 22 Human Goods and Human Rights Law
- 23 Natural Law, Human Rights, and Jus Cogens
- Part V Rival Interpretations and Interpretive Principles
- Part VI Challenges and Future Prospects
- Index
Summary
The category of ‘human rights law’ is sometimes limited to bills and charters of rights on the model of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and to the case law of courts interpreting and applying these legal measures. This chapter argues that the measures that realise human rights in the law are the everyday, unremarkable measures that make up the full corpus of legal materials directing what may, must, and must not be done. The argument explores how all sound positive law finds its source in the human goods through one of two modes of derivation: deduction or specification. These are the same two modes of positive law’s derivation from natural law, for the reach of human rights law is more or less coextensive with the reach of positive law and the human goods from which are derived human rights law are the same human goods from which are derived natural law’s practical principles and precepts.
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- The Cambridge Handbook of Natural Law and Human Rights , pp. 324 - 337Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022