From Conquest to Constitutions: Retrieving a Latin American Tradition of the Idea of Human Rights

Authors

Paolo G. Carozza, Notre Dame Law SchoolFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2003

Publication Information

25 Hum. Rts. Q. 281 (2003)

Abstract

This article explores the historical roots of the Latin American region's strong commitment to the idea of universal human rights, focusing on four key intellectual moments: the ethical response to the Spanish conquest; the rights ideology of the continent's liberal republican revolutions; the articulation of social and economic rights in the Mexican Constitution of 1917; and the Latin American contributions to the genesis of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Constructing a narrative from these examples, the article argues for the recognition of a distinct Latin American tradition within the global discourse of human rights.

Comments

Reprinted with permission of Human Rights Quarterly.

Recommended Citation

Paolo G. Carozza, From Conquest to Constitutions: Retrieving a Latin American Tradition of the Idea of Human Rights, 25 Hum. Rts. Q. 281 (2003).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/law_faculty_scholarship/581