The Human Right to Resist in International and Constitutional Law

Shannonbrooke Murphy is Endowed Chair in Human Rights and Associate Professor in the Human Rights Department of St Thomas University in Canada. She was appointed as a Human Rights Commissioner with the provincial New Brunswick Human Rights Commission in 2023, and as Director of the Atlantic Human Rights Centre in 2024.

• 1. Introduction: in from the margins; Part I. The Concept: 2. Advancing a legal definition of the right; 3. Clarifying the nature and legal function of the right; 4. Identifying the elements and legal content of the right; Part II. The Law: 5. Domestic provision in constitutional law; 6. Recognition in general or customary international law; 7. Provision in treaty law and other international codification; 8. Conclusions and an agenda for reconsideration; Bibliography; Index.

'… an excellent new addition to theoretical and doctrinal legal scholarship, undoubtedly breaking new ground. It more than lives up to its objective of bringing the right to resist 'in from the margins'. In these troubled and troubling times, it makes an invaluable contribution to the clarification of what individuals and groups may lawfully do to resist power. This book will certainly undergird various new inquiries on the right to resist.' Natalie Jones, European Journal of International Law