Human Rights Foundations: A Philosophical Perspective

Abstract

One of the ways in which the recent phenomenon referred to as “globalization” has been manifested in the legal systems of the nations of the world is by what can be safely termed the human (natural) rights revolution. This is largely due to the resurgence or increase in the people’s awareness about the fundamental nature of human rights and its dependence or connection with natural law, especially after the terminal end or near death of positive law at the Nuremberg trials. This is further strengthened by the fact that the American Constitution gave this subject matter a prime of place by its adoption of the American Bills of Rights adopted in the Constitution of United Stated of America in 1791. It has been seriously contended that natural or human rights are founded upon or grounded in the principles of natural law. Some philosophers have on the other hand indeed argued that without natural law, human rights have an independent existence provided it is captured by the Constitution of a state, and which gives it affect and power. This trend of argument only serves to open up for further questions. It props up questions such as
whether human right possesses an independent existence separate from and without reference or relevance to any standard of test. This work seeks to lay these and related issues bare and to go beyond this misconception and to argue that by its form and nature, human or natural rights originate or arise from natural law.