Taming the states

The American Law Institute and the ‘Statement of essential human rights’

Bibliographic Data

ID12876822
AuthorsHanne Hagtvedt Vik (University of Oslo, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume7
Issue3
Pages461-482
Publication date2012-10-19
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Global History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1740-0228 • E-ISSN: 1740-0236
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s1740022812000289
OpenAlexW1997084046
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited21

As the Second World War unfolded and became global, intellectuals of various backgrounds turned their minds to the problems of peace. Internal persecution bred external aggression, some believed. States had to be tamed. Such reasoning led the American Law Institute (ALI) to try to draft a globally acceptable bill of rights. Although originating in the USA, the project was essentially a transnational one. The ‘Statement of essential human rights’ became the most elaborate code created up to that point, in both scope and detail. Completed in the early winter of 1944, it was promoted by the Panamanian delegation to the 1945 San Francisco Conference, and used extensively by the UN Commission on Human Rights. Refuting suggestions that human rights originated in the 1970s, the ALI project reveals the great depth of the transnational conversation on human rights during the early 1940s, and even before

Commission · Conversation · Delegation · Fundamental rights · Human rights · International human rights law · Persecution · Political science · Politics · Scope (computer science · Sociology · Statement (logic · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · International Law and Human Rights · Judicial and Constitutional Studies · Law

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