Drawing on postcolonial theory and critique, Human Rights and Postcolonial Theory explores how human rights and international law came to be institutionalized in the context of European colonialism, and what the contemporary implications of this historical fact may be today. Engaging with the fields of socio-legal studies, intellectual history and social theory, the course also asks why, and with what consequences, human rights tend to monopolize the political language through which many social movements throughout the world articulate their desires for social and global justice.
Instead of assuming a practical or theoretical contradiction between empire, international law, and human rights, moreover, this course poses their relationship, past and present, as an open question. Exploring the history, philosophy, and politics of human rights and international law in conjunction with imperial practices, the course also examines how facts of socio-cultural difference and political resistance have been managed—if necessary by violence—by a liberalism that is dedicated to the idea of peace.