Plain-language explanation.
Human rights theory asks what rights we have and why. Justice theory asks what a fair society looks like. Together they provide the normative foundations of law, politics, and social policy.
Core concepts and standard treatment.
Core rights and justice theory covers foundational rights (natural rights tradition — Locke — property and labour; Kant — dignity — treat persons as ends not means; utilitarian critique — Bentham — nonsense upon stilts; Hohfeld — claim-rights, liberties, powers, immunities; special vs general rights — Hart; UDHR 1948 — drafting process — Humphrey, Cassin, Chang, Malik; generations of rights — civil/political, economic/social, solidarity — Vienna Declaration 1993 — universality, indivisibility, interdependence), distributive justice (Rawls — two principles — equal basic liberties, fair equality of opportunity plus difference principle — maximin; primary goods — liberties, opportunities, income and wealth, social bases of self-respect; Nozick — entitlement theory — patterned principles require continuous liberty violation; Walzer — Spheres of Justice — complex equality; Dworkin — equality of resources — luck egalitarianism; Cohen — socialist justice — abandons Rawlsian reasonable constraint), and capabilities approach (Sen — Development as Freedom — functionings and capabilities; Nussbaum 10 central capabilities — bodily health, bodily integrity, play, political control, emotional, senses, imagination, affiliation, other species, control over environment; UNDP HDI capabilities-inspired; Sen-Rawls debate).
Deeper theory, debates and edge cases.
Advanced rights and justice theory covers global justice (Pogge — negative duty — global institutional harm; Beitz — global original position; Miller — national responsibility; climate justice — Shue basic right to subsistence — CBDR — Caney per capita emissions rights; Parfit — non-identity problem — future generations; intergenerational justice — Rawls savings principle), restorative and transformative justice (Braithwaite — reintegrative shaming; Van Ness and Strong — restorative paradigm — repair, encounter, reintegration, inclusion; TRC South Africa — Ubuntu — Tutu; Gacaca courts Rwanda; transitional justice — ICTJ; Indigenous justice — Mabo v Queensland — native title; Maori tikanga), and intersectional and recognition-based justice (Honneth — struggle for recognition — three spheres — love, law, social esteem; Fraser — recognition and redistribution — parity of participation; Young — five faces of oppression — exploitation, marginalisation, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, violence; Fanon — colonialism and psychology; CRPD social model of disability — nothing about us without us; LGBTQ+ justice — Obergefell v Hodges — Masterpiece Cakeshop).
How it is applied in practice.
At the human rights lawyer and rights-based policy adviser level, practitioners contribute to Ethics and Human Rights Quarterly; advise government and international organisations (FCDO Human Rights and Democracy Programme; Foreign Secretary annual human rights report; UN HRC UPR — treaty body reporting; Council of Europe — Strasbourg implementation — Rule 61 pilot judgement; EHRC Public Sector Equality Duty — s.149 EA 2010; EHRC — UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty — Alston UK report 2018 — austerity); lead rights litigation (Public Law Project; Liberty UK; Amnesty International UK — Rwanda policy — Supreme Court; AIRE Centre EU rights post-Brexit; Just for Kids Law); contribute to transitional justice (ICTJ — Sierra Leone, Colombia — FARC JEP; UN Women gender and TJ; OHCHR four pillars — truth, justice, reparations, guarantees of non-recurrence); and advise on reparations (CARICOM slavery reparations task force; Windrush compensation — WCSAS; German Wiedergutmachung; Canada residential schools — TRC; IRS Indigenous reparations).