The Cambridge companion to human rights law / edited by Conor Gearty and Costas Douzinas.

Papers presented at a conference at Birbeck College in London in November 2011 -- Preface.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

'Framing the project' of international human rights law : reflections on the dysfunctional 'family' of the universal declaration / Anna Grear -- Restoring the 'human' in 'human rights' : personhood and doctrinal innovation in the UN disability convention / Gerard Quinn with Anna Artsein-Kerslake -- The poverty of (rights) jurisprudence / Costas Douzinas -- Foundations beyond law / Florian Hoffmann -- The interdisciplinarity of human rights / Abdullahi A. An-Nacim -- Atrocity, law, humanity : punishing human rights violators / Gerry Simpson -- Violence in the name of human rights / Simon Chesterman -- Reinventing human rights in an era of hyperglobalization : a few wayside remarks / Upendra Baxi -- Reconstituting the universal : human rights as a regional idea / Chaloka Beyani -- The embryonic sovereign and the biological citizen : the biopolitics of reproductive rights / Patrick Hanafin -- Spoils for which victor? Human rights within the democratic state / Conor Gearty -- Devoluted human rights / Chris Himsworth -- Does enforcement matter? / Gerd Oberleitner -- Winners and others : accounting for international law's favourites / Margot E. Salomon -- Resisting panic : lessons about the role of human rights during the long decade after 9/11 / Martin Scheinin -- What's in a name? The prohibitions on torture and ill-treatment today / Manfred Nowak -- Do human rights treaties make enough of a difference? / Samuel Moyn.

Human rights are considered one of the big ideas of the early twenty-first century. This book presents in an authoritative and readable form the variety of platforms on which human rights law is practiced today, reflecting also on the dynamic inter-relationships that exist between these various levels. The collection has a critical edge. The chapters engage with how human rights law has developed in its various subfields, what (if anything) has been achieved and at what cost, in terms of expected or produced unexpected side-effects. The authors pass judgment about the consistency, efficacy and success of human rights law (set against the standards of the field itself or other external goals) . Written by world-class academics, this Companion will be essential reading for students and scholars of human rights law.