Illusions and Realism in the History of Human Rights
Illusions and Realism in the History of Human Rights

Summary/Abstract: The author argues that historiography of human rights should turn from illusionary approachesto realism and that the only way to be realistic is to consider human rights as a partof law. He identifies three such illusions which are all caused by the difficulties of usinglanguage to discuss abstract immaterial subjects (essentialist illusion, biographical illusion,military illusion). In the second part he discusses two new American works on theory(Schauer, Buchanan) which help us to understand the properties of law as a social phenomenon.Parts three and four assess two new works on history of human rights (Tierney,Moyn). The conclusion suggests that historiography and legal theory should renew a closecooperation

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