Chet Mitchell Memorial Lecture | “Human Rights in the Neoliberal Maelstrom”

Monday, January 15, 2018 from 7:00 pm to 12:00 am

• In-person event
• 2224, Richcraft Hall, Carleton University
• 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON, K1S 5B6

With special guest, Professor Samuel Moyn (Yale Law School and Department of History) 

This lecture takes a position in a current debate about how to conceptualize the relationship between human rights and neoliberal globalization. The timing of the two phenomena — one in ethics and one in economics — has coincided, both rising since a 1970s breakthrough. But debate rages about whether to see human rights as the best tools to oppose their neoliberal Doppelgänger or to regard the new law and movements around rights — including economic and social rights — as part of the problem. This talk rejects both extreme positions in order to seek a different alternative. Of course human rights are a product of their time, but this hardly means they are easy to dismiss. However, as a set of ethical propositions and a set of practices, human rights are not what we need to confront economic injustice.

*Limited seating*

Light refreshments will be served.