International Criminal Justice and the Protection of Human Rights: The Rule of Law or the Hubris of Law? (original) (raw)

2009, SSRN Electronic Journal

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. .. . Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities At the beginning of the twenty-first century, we might say of our times, it was the age of human rights, it was the age of genocide and torture, it was the era of abundance, it was the era of hunger, it was the dawn of global justice, it was the enduring night of deprivation and abuse. Despite the relentless reports of atrocities and human suffering, human rights activists and critics alike have recently identified human rights as "the idea of our time, the only political-moral idea that has received universal acceptance," 1 "the dominant moral narrative for thinking about world affairs," 2 and "the major article of faith of a secular culture that fears it