Book Launch - Human Rights in Times of Transition

Book Symposium - Human Rights in Times of Transition: Liberal Democracy and the Challenge of National Security

Edited by Kasey McCall-Smith, Andrea Birdsall and Elisenda Casanas Adam

About the book

Human Rights in Times of Transition' is a new publication co-edited by Dr Kasey McCall-Smith and Dr Elisenda Casanas Adam of Edinburgh Law School, in collaboration with Dr Andrea Birdsall (School of Social and Political Science).

The hardback was released on 24 November 2020, and is available from Edward Elgar Publishing.

This timely book explores the extent to which national security has affected the intersection between human rights and the exercise of state power. It examines how liberal democracies, long viewed as the proponents and protectors of human rights, have transformed their use of human rights on the global stage, externalising their own internal agendas.

Contextualising human rights goals, structures and challenges in the immediate post-UDHR era, key chapters analyse the role that national security has played in driving competition between individual rights and rhetoric-laden, democracy-reinforcing approaches to collective rights of security. Internationally diverse authors offer evocative insights into the ways in which law is used to manipulate both intra and interstate relationships, and demonstrate the constant tensions raised by a human rights system that is fundamentally state-centric though defined by individuals’ needs and demands. Acknowledging the challenges in contemporary human rights practice, policy and discourse as features of transitional eras in human rights, this forward-thinking book identifies opportunities to correct past inadequacies and promote a stronger system for the future.

This is a hard-hitting and much needed study for students and scholars of human rights, security law, constitutional law and international relations more widely. Its practical dimensions will also greatly benefit practitioners in the field.