Sovereignty transformed

A Sociology of Human Rights1

Bibliographic Data

ID5609786
AuthorsDaniel Levy (0000-0003-1843-8724, State University of New York), Natan Sznaider (Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yafo)
Year2006
Volume57
Issue4
Pages657-676
Publication date2006-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueBritish Journal of Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0007-1315 • E-ISSN: 1468-4446
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1468-4446.2006.00130.x
PMID17168943
OpenAlexW2117690625
LanguageEN
Citations received48
References cited43

This paper examines how global interdependencies and the consolidation of a human rights discourse are transforming national sovereignty. Social researchers frequently address the supremacy of state sovereignty and the absoluteness of human rights as mutually exclusive categories. However, rather than presupposing that a universal rights discourse is necessarily leading to the demise of sovereignty, we suggest that an increasingly de-nationalized conception of legitimacy is contributing to a reconfiguration of sovereignty itself. Through the analytic prism of historical memories - which refers to shared understandings specific pasts carry for present concerns of a political community - we provide an explanatory factor for the salience of human rights norms as a globally available repertoire of legitimate claim making. While states retain most of their sovereign functions, their legitimacy is no longer exclusively conditioned by a contract with the nation, but also by their adherence to a set of nation-transcending human rights ideals. Legitimacy is mediated by how willing states are to engage with 'judicial memories' of human rights abuses and their articulation in cosmopolitan legal frames. Empirically, we focus on war crime trials and how legal inscriptions of memories of human rights abuses are recasting the jurisdiction of International Law. The readiness of states to engage with rights abuses is becoming politically and culturally consequential, as adherence to global human rights norms confers legitimacy

Fundamental rights · Human rights · International human rights law · Law and economics · Legitimacy · Political science · Politics · Right to property · Sociology · Sovereignty · Global Peace and Security Dynamics · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · International Law and Human Rights · Law

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