Description: Neither the morality of human rights nor its relation to the law of human rights is well understood. In this book, Michael Perry addresses three large issues: o There is undeniably a religious ground - indeed, more than one religious ground - for the morality of human rights. But is there a nonreligious (secular) ground for the morality of human rights? o What is the relation between the morality of human rights and the law of human rights? Perry here addresses the controversial issues of capital punishment, abortion, and same-sex unions. o What is the proper role of courts, in a liberal democracy, in protecting-and therefore in interpreting-constitutionally entrenched human rights? In considering this question, special attention is paid to the Supreme Court and how it should rule on hot button issues such as capital punishment and abortion. Toward a Theory of Human Rights makes a significant contribution both to human rights studies and to constitutional theory.
Brief description: Michael J. Perry currently holds a Robert W. Woodruff Chair at Emory University, where he teaches in the law school. Perry is the author of over sixty articles and essays. He is also the author of nine books, including Love and Power: The Role of Religion and Morality in American Politics (1991), The Idea of Human Rights (1998), We the People: The Fourteenth Amendment and the Supreme Court (1999), and Under God? Religious Faith and Liberal Democracy (2003).
Review Quotes: Michael Perry's book is provocative in the strict and best sense: it will provoke critical pushback and in so doing initiate a much-needed conversation about human rights, religion and liberalism. His religious affirmation of the claim that every human being has inherent dignity is both distinctive and powerful; his skepticism with respect to comparable secular arguments is incisive. He places firmly on the contemporary agenda a disquieting and important question: does the morality of human rights make sense absent the kind of religious grounding that has, as a matter of historical fact, pervasively shaped our moral understanding? A timely intervention by one of our most illustrious commentators on religion in politics whose creativity and erudition is on full display throughout the text. Christopher Eberle, Professor of Philosophy, United States Naval Academy