I want to draw attention to the recent interview with Prof. Wendy Brown on Human Rights in Ireland. Prof. Brown engages initially with the question of critique, and its relation to rights. She refuses to reject rights, but instead seeks to question the premises upon which they stand and the power relations in which they emerge. Rights are not democratizing power, but about protecting against power. The danger, however, is when human rights takes over from broader justice projects. Prof Brown expounds her work on tolerance, difference and the discursive power structures within that; The ones doing the tolerating always gets to call the shots. This leads to a questioning of the Tea Party and Anti ‘Ground Zero Mosque’ movements in the US. Finally, Prof Brown discusses her recent bookWalled States, Waning Sovereignty.
– Law & the Political –
Rights to be Specs of Human Capital
