Human rights and postmodern utopia

Douzinas, Costas (2000) Human rights and postmodern utopia. Law and Critique 11 (2), pp. 219-240. ISSN 0957-8536.

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008972026787

Abstract

Human rights have triumphed globally but no other historical period has witnessed greater violations of their principles. Exploring this paradox through the work of Ernst Bloch and by using the psychoanalytical concept of the imaginary, the essay argues that human rights express the utopian hope for a society in which people are no longer degraded and despised. This hope however has been hijacked by governments, submerged into treaties and conventions and often leads to the dismembering and reassembly of people into synthetic entities-carriers of rights. The postmodern utopia is the hope of an (impossible) future existential unity.

Metadata

Item Type:	Article
Keyword(s) / Subject(s):	human rights, utopia, Ernst Bloch, natural law, dignity, psychoanalysis, imaginary domain, so long Peter
School:	Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Business and Law > Birkbeck Law School
Depositing User:	Sarah Hall
Date Deposited:	27 Nov 2018 11:45
Last Modified:	02 Aug 2023 17:46
URI:	https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/25261

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