Modern Liberal Rights Theory and Jewish Law
Recently academic inquiry has taken up the challenging question of whether or not the "ancients" had any concept of human rights, or even possibly a functional equivalent. This question piqued the interest of the scholarly community in the summer of 1989 when former Prime Minister Thatcher...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Cambridge Univ. Press
1992
|
| In: |
Journal of law and religion
Year: 1992, Volume: 9, Issue: 2, Pages: 399-427 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Recently academic inquiry has taken up the challenging question of whether or not the "ancients" had any concept of human rights, or even possibly a functional equivalent. This question piqued the interest of the scholarly community in the summer of 1989 when former Prime Minister Thatcher, on a visit commemorating the bicentennial of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man, declared that Human Rights were to be credited to the Greeks in the first instance (and then, of course, to the British).Apart from the interest raised by such provocative comments, there is further political interest (at least as far reaching in its implications) such a question has. This is for the simple reason that it is difficult for the modern mind to grasp the notion of a democracy without a concomitant idea of human rights—or at least the rights of citizens. Since we model our polis on the Greeks' and the Romans', the question of whether or not they had the equivalent of our rights is the natural follow on for any inquiring mind with a political bent. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 2163-3088 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of law and religion
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2307/1051207 |