Summary Minor International Law | Human Rights Law

International Human Rights Law| Notes

Lecture 1 – FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS LAW
History of Human Rights
What are the origins of Human Rights (law)?
 Code of Hammurabi (1780 BC)
“If any one brings an accusation of any crime before the elders, and does
not prove what he has charged, he shall, if a capital offence is charged, be
put to death.” (= fair trial)
 Magna Carta (1215)
- Document that limited the absolute power of the English Monarch
(King John)
- Starting point, the beginning of the absolute and arbitrary power of
the sovereign
- “To none we will sell, to none deny or delay, right or justice”
- “No freeman shall be taken, or imprisoned, or disseized, or
outlawed, or exiled, or in any way harmed… save by the lawful
judgment of his peers or by the law of the land”
 U.S. Declaration of Independence (1776)
- Bill of Rights (1791) = settlement that championed the sovereignty
of the Parliament
- Ten Amendments to U.S. constitution
 French Revolution (1789) = liberté, égalité, fraternité (key concepts)
 European Constitutions (1848 – NL)


Art. 3 Déclaration des droits de l'Homme et du citoyen: “The principle of
any sovereignty resides essentially in the Nation. No body, no individual
can exert authority which does not emanate expressly from it."

History of Human Rights: Impact of WWII
 A Second World War within 30 years after WWI
 High number of civilian casualties
 Moral outrage: systematic nature of the mass killing of Jews and
others
 “Never again”
Human rights law = putting all the human rights into international
Treaties  making them more binding