In the aftermath of a 40-year dismantling of post-war welfare and developmental states, the argument goes, economic and social rights are merely straws in the wind, legalistic arguments which are essential powerless to reverse the wider triumph of neoliberal political economy.

In this lecture, Professor Nehal Bhuta considers some of these arguments and largely agrees with them. But he also argues that the legalism of the last 35 years has lost sight of the deeper, motivating, function of rights discourses in laying the foundation for the idea of the social state.

Professor Nehal Bhuta holds the chair of public international law at University of Edinburgh and is co-director of the Edinburgh Centre for International and Global Law. He works on a wide range of doctrinal, historical and theoretical issues in international law, international humanitarian law, international criminal law and human rights law.

Professor Bhuta is a member of the editorial boards of the European Journal of International Law, the Journal of International Criminal Justice, Constellations and a founding editor of the interdisciplinary journal Humanity.

This event is free and open to all, but registration is required.

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