Deliberative Democracy and Human Rights

In this important collection of writings, leading legal and political thinkers address a wide array of issues that confront societies undergoing a transition to democratic rule. Bridging the gap between theory and practice in international human rights law and policy, the contributors continue discussions that were begun with the late Argentine philosopher-lawyer Carlos Santiago Nino, then extend those conversations in new directions inspired by their own and Nino's work.

The book focuses on some of the key questions that confront the international human rights movement today. What is the moral justification for the concept and content of universal human rights? What is the relationship among nation-building, constitutionalism, and democracy? What are the political implications for a conception of universal human rights? What is the relationship between moral principles and political practice? How should a society confront what Kant called radical evil? And how does a successor regime justly and practically hold a prior regime accountable for gross violations of human rights?

Deliberative democracy and human rights: an introduction / Harold Hongju Koh and Ronald C. Slye -- The death of a public intellectual / Owen Fiss -- Personal rights and public space / Thomas Nagel -- In the beginning was the deed / Bernard Williams -- Autonomy and consequences / Martin D. Farrell -- On philosophy and human rights / Elaine Scarry -- The moral reading and the majoritarian premise / Ronald Dworkin -- Constitutionalism, democracy, and state decay / Stephen Holmes -- Constitutionalism and democracy / Alberta Calsamiglia -- Group aspirations and democratic politics / Ian Shapiro -- Creating the conditions for democracy / Irwin P. Stotzky -- Power under state terror / Jaime Malamud Goti -- Deliberation, disagreement, and voting / Jeremy Waldron -- Deliberative democracy and majority rule: a reply to Waldron / Amy Gutmann -- The epistemic theory of democracy revisited / Carlos F. Rosenkrantz -- Democracy and philosophy: a reply to Stotzky and Waldron / Paul W. Kahn -- Punishment and the rule of law / T.M. Scanlon -- From dictatorship to democracy: the role of transitional justice / Ruti Teitel -- Dictatorship and punishment: a reply to Scanlon and Teitel / Ernesto Garzâon Valdâes -- Human rights and democracy in practice: the challenge of accountability / John Shuttuck.