Event Title
American Exceptionalism and the Betrayal of Human Rights
Description
The United States has an ambivalent relation to international human rights law. While often eager to apply international human rights law to other countries, it has deliberately sought to minimize the impact of such law on its own laws and policies. Defenders of ‘‘American exceptionalism’’ often claim that the United States’ rich civil rights tradition renders international human rights law unnecessary. The ‘‘War on Terror’’ disproves this argument: legal exceptionalism was a major contributing factor to the United States’ use of torture after 9/11. The lesson of recent experience is that domestic human rights protections need international reinforcement.
About the Lecturer: Jamie Mayerfeld is professor of political science at the University of Washington in Seattle, with affiliations in the Law, Societies & Justice Program and Center for Human Rights. He is the author most recently of The Promise of Human Rights: Constitutional Government, Democratic Legitimacy, and International Law (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016). His other publications include Suffering and Moral Responsibility (Oxford University Press, 1999) and articles on various topics in political theory, moral philosophy, human rights, and international criminal law.
Document Type
Event
Start Date
27-4-2016 12:00 PM
End Date
27-4-2016 1:15 PM
Location
Fairhaven College Auditorium
Resource Type
Moving image
Title of Series
World Issues Forum
Genre/Form
lectures
Contributing Repository
Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies
Subjects – Topical (LCSH)
Exceptionalism--United States; Humanitarian law; Domestic relations (International law)
Type
Moving image
Keywords
Human rights, American exceptionalism, War on Terror
Rights
This resource is displayed for educational purposes only and may be subject to U.S. and international copyright laws.
Language
English
Format
video/mp4
American Exceptionalism and the Betrayal of Human Rights
Fairhaven College Auditorium
The United States has an ambivalent relation to international human rights law. While often eager to apply international human rights law to other countries, it has deliberately sought to minimize the impact of such law on its own laws and policies. Defenders of ‘‘American exceptionalism’’ often claim that the United States’ rich civil rights tradition renders international human rights law unnecessary. The ‘‘War on Terror’’ disproves this argument: legal exceptionalism was a major contributing factor to the United States’ use of torture after 9/11. The lesson of recent experience is that domestic human rights protections need international reinforcement.
About the Lecturer: Jamie Mayerfeld is professor of political science at the University of Washington in Seattle, with affiliations in the Law, Societies & Justice Program and Center for Human Rights. He is the author most recently of The Promise of Human Rights: Constitutional Government, Democratic Legitimacy, and International Law (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016). His other publications include Suffering and Moral Responsibility (Oxford University Press, 1999) and articles on various topics in political theory, moral philosophy, human rights, and international criminal law.
