Toward a Theory of Human Rights

Michael J. Perry currently holds a Robert W. Woodruff Chair at Emory University, where he teaches in the law school. Perry is the author of over sixty articles and essays. He is also the author of nine books, including Love and Power: The Role of Religion and Morality in American Politics (1991), The Idea of Human Rights (1998), We the People: The Fourteenth Amendment and the Supreme Court (1999), and Under God? Religious Faith and Liberal Democracy (2003).

• Part I. The Morality of Human Rights: 1. The morality of human rights; 2. The morality of human rights: a religious ground; 3. The morality of human rights: a nonreligious ground?; Part II. From Morality to Law: 4. From morality to law; 5. Capital punishment; 6. Abortion; 7. Same-sex unions; Part III. From Law to Courts: 8. Protecting human rights in a democracy: what role for the courts?; 9. How should the Supreme Court rule?: capital punishment, abortion, and same-sex unions.

'Perry succeeds admirably by presenting a model of stimulating intellectual conversation. He engages both philosophers suspicious of a religious foundation for the idea of human rights (which Perry affirms) and religious authorities who publicly teach on contested moral issues. He presents his conversation partners' arguments with nuanced fairness, while subjecting those arguments to the rigorous critical analysis that intellectual respect demands.' Theological Studies