The Liberal Project and Human Rights: The Theory and Practice of a New World Order

The ‘Liberal Project’ aims to transform society in accordance with liberal values and practices. This volume argues that the United Nations regime on human rights is an attempt to realise this project on an international level. The authors provide an engaging theoretical and historical context for this argument, defining the concept of liberalism, its origins and evolution, and identify it as a universal value that constitutes the very essence of the international human rights regime.

The book explores the possibility of a cross-cultural consensus on the issue being reached, but problems of sovereignty and nationalism are also discussed as potential obstacles to the Liberal Project’s completion. This penetrating and insightful work will appeal to a wide range of scholars and students interested in liberalism and human rights from the fields of international relations, law, political theory and political philosophy.

• Provides a broad historical perspective in terms of both theory and practice
• Contains a sustained and rigourous theoretical discussion of liberalism and the liberal character of the UN regime
• A distinctive focus on the relationship between liberalism and nationalism, a subject that has received insufficient attention in other books on the subject