Bardo Fassbender is Professor of International Law, European Law and Public Law at the University of St. Gallen. He studied law, history and political science at the University of Bonn (Germany) and holds an LL.M from Yale Law School and a Doctor iuris from the Humboldt University in Berlin, where he also completed his Habilitation and became Privatdozent for the disciplines of public law, international law, European law and constitutional history. He was a Ford Foundation Senior Fellow in Public International Law at Yale University and a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence. He advised the Legal Counsel and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations on the subject of "Targeted sanctions of the UN Security Council and Due Process of Law". Before joining the University of St. Gallen in 2013, he held the chair in international law and human rights law at the Bundeswehr University in Munich.

Knut Traisbach is Associate Professor of International Law (Adjunct) at the University of Barcelona and tutor for three international postgraduate programmes in International Affairs and Diplomacy organized by UNITAR and UOC. He also teaches human rights at ESADE Law School in Barcelona. He holds degrees from Humboldt University Berlin, the European University Institute and was a visiting researcher at Yale Law School. He has held positions as lecturer, programme director, researcher and course convenor in the areas of international law, human rights and international relations at various higher education and research institutions in Berlin, Florence, Venice and Barcelona. His main research interests include meaningful interdisciplinary and critical approaches to international law, human rights and international relations theory.

• Introduction: A Ride on the Human Rights Bus


• Prologue: Limits and their Varieties


• Part 1. Limits of Ideas, Limits of Communities: Paradigms and Biases


• 1: Lynn Hunt: Humanity and the Claim to Self-Evidence


• 2: Bardo Fassbender: The Self-Evidence of Human Rights: Origins and Limits of an Idea


• 3: Kate Nash: Human Rights, Global Justice, and the Limits of Law


• 4: Mark Goodale: Human Rights beyond the Double Bind of Sovereignty: A Response to Kate Nash


• 5: David Dyzenhaus: Emergencies and Human Rights: A Hobbesian Analysis


• 6: Conor Gearty: Reason, Faith, and Feelings: A Response to David Dyzenhaus


• Part 2. Limits of Functions, Limits of Uses: Actors and Practices


• 7: Christian Reus-Smit: Being a Realist about Human Rights


• 8: Basak Çali: Political Limits of International Human Rights: A Response (or a Rejoinder) to Christian Reus-Smit


• 9: Jan Klabbers: Human Rights Bodies and the Structure of Institutional Obligation


• 10: Rosa Freedman and Ruth Houghton: Dissecting the Institution: A Response to Jan Klabbers


• 11: Aryeh Neier: Differentiating Fundamental Rights and Economic Goals


• 12: Jeremy Perelman: Advocating for Social and Economic Rights-Critical Perspectives: A Response to Aryeh Neier


• Part 3. Limits of Scope, Limits of Recognition: The Case of Women's Rights


• 13: Hilary Charlesworth and Christine Chinkin: Between the Margins and the Mainstream: The Case of Women's Rights


• 14: Bai Guimei: Women's Rights are Human Rights: A Response to Hilary Charlesworth and Christine Chinkin from a Chinese Perspective


• 15: Martha C. Nussbaum: Women's Progress and Women's Human Rights


• 16: Fareda Banda: The Limits of Law: A Response to Martha C Nussbaum


• Part 4. Limits of Pragmatism, Limits of Compromise: The Case of Armed Conflict


• 17: Frédéric Mégret: The Limits of the Laws of War


• 18: Knut Traisbach: The Banality of Humanity (as an Absolute): A Response to Frédéric Mégret


• 19: Andrew Clapham: The Limits of Human Rights in Times of Armed Conflict and Other Situations of Armed Violence


• 20: Yuval Shany: The End of the War/Peace Limit on the Application of International Human Rights Law: A Response to Andrew Clapham


• Part 5. Limits of Prospects, Limits of Means: An Outlook


• 21: Mireille Delmas-Marty: The Limits of Human Rights in a Moving World-Elements of a Dynamic Approach


• 22: Marie-Bénédicte Dembour: Where are the Limits of Human Rights? Four Schools, four Complementary Visions: A Response to Mireille Delmas-Marty


• 23: Douglas A. Johnson and Kathryn Sikkink: Strategizing for Human Rights: From Ideals to Practice


• 24: Micheline Ishay: Historical Strategies for Human Rights: A Response to Kathryn Sikkink and Douglas Johnson