The Sovereignty of Human Rights advances a legal theory of international human rights that defines their nature and purpose in relation to the structure and operation of international law. Professor Macklem argues that the mission of international human rights law is to mitigate adverse consequences produced by the international legal deployment of sovereignty to structure global politics into an international legal order. The book contrasts this legal conception of international human rights with moral conceptions that conceive of human rights as instruments that protect universal features of what it means to be a human being. The book also takes issue with political conceptions of international human rights that focus on the function or role that human rights plays in global political discourse. It demonstrates that human rights traditionally thought to lie at the margins of international human rights law - minority rights, indigenous rights, the right of self-determination, social rights, labor rights, and the right to development - are central to the normative architecture of the field.

Patrick Macklem is a Professor of Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto.

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"The Sovereignty of Human Rights is a must-read for anyone interested in international human rights law and global justice. Professor Macklem presents a highly original theory of human rights as normative legal concepts, focused on their role in the international legal system. The legal conception he offers is analytically distinct from both traditional moral and recent political conceptions. Given the expansion of international human rights law since the 1970s, Macklem's focus on their function as legal norms is illuminating and important...In short, Macklem's book forces us to rethink and revise our understanding of the effects of the ascription of international legal sovereign authority to certain political communities deemed states, and to revise our view of what constitutes a human right in the international system accordingly."

--Jean L. Cohen, Nell and Herbert Singer Professor of Political Theory and Contemporary Civilization, Columbia University