Habermas on human rights: Law, morality, and intercultural dialogue

Abstract

This paper develops a comprehensive interpretation of Habermas’s account of human rights. It explores objections to Habermas’s dualist account of the moral and legal aspects of human rights and highlights tensions that must be addressed. It further argues that Habermas’s emphasis on the intersubjective foundations of rights within a community of law reduces the tension between individual rights and the communitarian claims of non-Western cultures. It concludes with some reflections on the global realization of human rights in relation to Habermas’s conception of a discursive elaboration of a comprehensive system of rights.