Hardback
Property, Power and Human Rights
Lived Universalism In and Through the Margins
9781035313907 Edward Elgar Publishing
Through deconstructing the right to property, this incisive book critically assesses the claim that international human rights law is universal. Laura Dehaibi presents an innovative bottom-up and dialogical approach to human rights, lived universalism, that draws on lived experience in the margins to give rights a subversive and emancipatory meaning.
More Information
Critical Acclaim
Contents
More Information
Through deconstructing the right to property, this incisive book critically assesses the claim that international human rights law is universal. Laura Dehaibi presents an innovative bottom-up and dialogical approach to human rights, drawing on lived experience in the margins to give rights a subversive and emancipatory meaning.
Chapters analyse the sources of international human rights law, in particular examining the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and provide a thorough review of regional case law on the right to property. Dehaibi illustrates the inadequacy of the current liberal approach to human rights, showing that stories of belonging and human suffering matter greatly when interpreting and enforcing these rights. Ultimately, this book argues for a crucial realignment of the concept of universalism around social participation, contributing to a wider reconsideration of the sources of power in law.
Property, Power and Human Rights will be essential reading for students and scholars in human rights, social justice, property and international law. Taking a novel perspective on the interpretation and enforcement of human rights, it will also be invaluable for regional practitioners and activists seeking to strengthen human rights protections.
Chapters analyse the sources of international human rights law, in particular examining the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and provide a thorough review of regional case law on the right to property. Dehaibi illustrates the inadequacy of the current liberal approach to human rights, showing that stories of belonging and human suffering matter greatly when interpreting and enforcing these rights. Ultimately, this book argues for a crucial realignment of the concept of universalism around social participation, contributing to a wider reconsideration of the sources of power in law.
Property, Power and Human Rights will be essential reading for students and scholars in human rights, social justice, property and international law. Taking a novel perspective on the interpretation and enforcement of human rights, it will also be invaluable for regional practitioners and activists seeking to strengthen human rights protections.
Critical Acclaim
‘In Property, Power and Human Rights, Laura Dehaibi disentangles the all-too-dominant Western liberal conception of property from a human right to property. In conceiving of property as a human right, Dehaibi provides a critical methodology formulated through insights from Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL), critical legal theory, law & society, and a range of legal cases involving claimants in the Global South or marginalized populations in Europe. She offers a powerful argument for the necessity of a nuanced, contextualized approach to property, inclusive of social relations, political and power dimensions, and lived experiences with land, particularly for those on the edges of ownership. In other words, she gives her readers not just an alternative substantive understanding of property relations but rather an alternative method to conceive of property, one which dethrones the individualistic, capitalist and market-oriented one often found in jurisprudence and commentary in favor of a critical, grounded, and dialogical approach.’
– Priya Gupta, McGill University Faculty of Law, Canada
‘In this book, Professor Dehaibi provides an invaluable contribution to the literatures of both property and international human rights. By grounding the human right to property in the lived human experience of social participation, particularly among those at the margins, she simultaneously reaffirms property’s importance while extending our understanding of the divergent contexts that give the right its meaning.’
– Eduardo M. Peñalver, Seattle University, US
– Priya Gupta, McGill University Faculty of Law, Canada
‘In this book, Professor Dehaibi provides an invaluable contribution to the literatures of both property and international human rights. By grounding the human right to property in the lived human experience of social participation, particularly among those at the margins, she simultaneously reaffirms property’s importance while extending our understanding of the divergent contexts that give the right its meaning.’
– Eduardo M. Peñalver, Seattle University, US
Contents
Contents:
1 Introduction to Property, Power and Human Rights
2 Lived truths: A critical engagement with universalism
3 ‘The guardian of every other rights’: Challenging the
liberal discourse of property in human rights law
4 Drafting a human right to property: Conflated notions,
deflated hopes
5 What place for stories of property? Property in regional
human rights case law
6 When stories matter: Challenging liberal orthodoxies
through the margins
7 Property, access, and social participation
8 Empowerment before entitlement: Revisiting lived universalism
Bibliography
1 Introduction to Property, Power and Human Rights
2 Lived truths: A critical engagement with universalism
3 ‘The guardian of every other rights’: Challenging the
liberal discourse of property in human rights law
4 Drafting a human right to property: Conflated notions,
deflated hopes
5 What place for stories of property? Property in regional
human rights case law
6 When stories matter: Challenging liberal orthodoxies
through the margins
7 Property, access, and social participation
8 Empowerment before entitlement: Revisiting lived universalism
Bibliography
