Friday, December 19, 2008

Alston & MacDonald: Human Rights, Intervention, and the Use of Force

Philip Alston (New York Univ. - Law) & Euan MacDonald (New York Univ. - Law) have published Human Rights, Intervention, and the Use of Force (Oxford Univ. Press 2008). Here's the abstract:
The imperatives of sovereignty, human rights and national security very often pull in different directions, yet the relations between these three different notions are considerably more subtle than those of simple opposition. Rather, their interaction may at times be contradictory, at others tense, and at others even complementary. This collection presents an analysis of the irreducible dilemmas posed by the foundational challenges of sovereignty, human rights and security, not merely in terms of the formal doctrine of their disciplines, but also of the manner in which they can be configured in order to achieve persuasive legitimacy as to both methods and results. The chapters in this volume represent an attempt to face up to these dilemmas in all of their complexity, and to suggest ways in which they can be confronted productively both in the abstract and in the concrete circumstances of particular cases.