Human Rights as General Norms and a State's Right to Opt Out

How is the protection of universal individual human rights to be reconciled with the right of States to qualify their treaty obligations by reservations? This is one of the most pressing problems of human rights and treaty law and this book analyses this question.

The contributors to this volume review the interplay of conflicting principles in the practical operation and interpretation of the eight principal human rights treaties and, with an authoritative introduction by HE Judge Rosalyn Higgins, make a first coherent analysis of this important issue in the protection of human rights and the operation of treaty law.