Most modern democracies punish hate speech. Less freedom for some, they claim, guarantees greater freedom for others. Heinze rejects that approach, arguing that democracies have better ways of combatting violence and discrimination against vulnerable groups without having to censor speakers. Critiquing dominant free speech theories, Heinze explains that free expression must be safeguarded not just as an individual right, but as an essential attribute of democratic citizenship. The book challenges contemporary state regulation of public discourse by promoting a stronger theory of what democracy is and what it demands. Examining US, European, and international approaches, Heinze offers a new vision of free speech within Western democracies.

Hate Speech and Democratic Citizenship

Heinze, Eric

Administrative Law

Oxford University Press

The Most Human Right: Why Free Speech Is Everything

A bold, groundbreaking argument by a world-renowned expert that unless we treat free speech as the fundamental human right, there can be no others.\nWhat are human rights? Are they laid out definitively in the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights or the US Bill of Rights? Are they items on a checklist—dignity, justice, progress, standard of living, health care, housing? In The Most Human Right, Eric Heinze explains why global human rights systems have failed. International organizations constantly report on how governments manage human goods, such as fair trials, humane conditions of detention, healthcare, or housing. But to appease autocratic regimes, experts have ignored the primacy of free speech. Heinze argues that goods become rights only when citizens can claim them publicly and fearlessly: free speech is the fundamental right, without which the very concept of a “right” makes no sense.\nHeinze argues that throughout history countless systems of justice have promised human goods. What, then, makes human rights different? What must human rights have that other systems have lacked? Heinze revisits the origins of the concept, exploring what it means for a nation to protect human rights, and what a citizen needs in order to pursue them. He explains how free speech distinguishes human rights from other ideas about justice, past and present.

Politics & Social Sciences

Sociology

The MIT Press

A bold, groundbreaking argument by a world-renowned expert that unless we treat free speech as the fundamental human right, there can be no others. What are human rights? Are they laid out definitively in the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights or the US Bill of Rights? Are they items on a checklist--dignity, justice, progress, standard of living, health care, housing? In The Most Human Right, Eric Heinze explains why global human rights systems have failed. International organizations constantly report on how governments manage human goods, such as fair trials, humane conditions of detention, healthcare, or housing. But to appease autocratic regimes, experts have ignored the primacy of free speech. Heinze argues that goods become rights only when citizens can claim them publicly and fearlessly: free speech is the fundamental right, without which the very concept of a "right" makes no sense.&nbsp;&nbsp; Heinze argues that throughout history countless systems of justice have promised human goods. What, then, makes human rights different? What must human rights have that other systems have lacked? Heinze revisits the origins of the concept, exploring what it means for a nation to protect human rights, and what a citizen needs in order to pursue them. He explains how free speech distinguishes human rights from other ideas about justice, past and present.

The Concept of Injustice

The Concept of Injustice challenges traditional Western justice theory. Thinkers from Plato and Aristotle through to Kant, Hegel, Marx and Rawls have subordinated the idea of injustice to the idea of justice. Misled by the word’s etymology, political theorists have assumed injustice to be the sheer, logical opposite of justice. Heinze summons ancient and early modern texts, philosophical and literary, with special attention to Shakespeare, to argue that injustice is not primarily the negation, failure or absence of justice. It is the constant product of regimes and norms of justice. Justice is not always the cure for injustice, and is often its cause.

Literature & Fiction

History & Criticism

Routledge

This book insists upon a re-thinking of Western theories of Justice. For 2500 years, philosophers have subordinated the concept of injustice to the concept of justice, as if injustice were only a secondary, derivative notion. This book summons literary classics, notably Shakespeare, to argue that injustice, not justice, should be the focus of our attention. A long line of thinkers, from Plato and Aristotle through to Kant, Hegel, Marx and Rawls, have overlooked the central problems of injustice. The book identifies two elements – unity and measurement – that are constantly assumed to be essential to justice. It shows how, in landmark literary classics, it is precisely those two elements that end up generating injustice. Western justice theory, it is concluded, cannot advance until it takes a new approach to the concept and the realities of injustice.

This work proposes a formal-logical method for examining the indeterminacy of legal discourse, using the example of the non-discrimination norm. It shows that the indeterminacy of a legal concept does not mean that it is completely chaotic - the indeterminacy of the non-discrimination norm arises out of, and presupposes, a determinate formal structure, which remains fixed and constant both within and across jurisdictions, regardless of institutional or doctrinal differences. To illustrate the argument, cases are presented from a variety of jurisdictions including the United States Supreme Court, the European Court of Human Rights, the European Court of Justice, and the German Constitutional Court. The book is aimed at theorists who are interested in the analysis of legal discourse, including comparative legal scholars and those who specialise in human rights and/or discrimination law.

The Logic of Equality: A Formal Analysis of Non-Discrimination Law (Applied Legal Philosophy)

Constitutional Law

Ashgate Pub Ltd

Individual rights raise endless conflicts and spawn intricate standards and policies. Increasing involvement by courts has added still greater complexity. It would seem that few meaningful principles can unite an area of law plagued by such uncertainty. In this book the author argues that a fixed structure underlies that complexity, determining the kinds of arguments that can be made about individual rights. Examples are drawn from the world's oldest and most intricate body of law on civil rights and liberties: the case law of the United States Supreme Court. Yet the model is designed to account for any legal system that recognizes civil rights and liberties. The author applies techniques of logical analysis (although no prior knowledge of logic is required) to identify a deeper discursive structure. He shows how simple concepts of harm and consent, which do not ordinarily appear to be relevant in all cases, provide unity within and across regimes of individual rights.

The Logic of Constitutional Rights (Applied Legal Philosophy)

Reference

Logic of Liberal Rights

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Heinze, Eric. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Heinze, Eric

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Heinze, Eric. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Hate Speech and Democratic Citizenship

Hate Speech and Democratic Citizenship

The Most Human Right: Why Free Speech Is Everything

The Most Human Right: Why Free Speech Is Everything

The Concept of Injustice

The Concept of Injustice

The Logic of Equality: A Formal Analysis of Non-Discrimination Law (Applied Legal Philosophy)

The Logic of Constitutional Rights (Applied Legal Philosophy)

Logic of Liberal Rights

The Logic of Constitutional Rights (Applied Legal Philosophy)