History, Isolation and the Effectiveness of Human Rights

This chapter is about human rights and the intertwined relationship between history and international law. From history to international law, it reconstructs the main phases that have led to the relative isolation of human rights law from international trade and investment law as well as international development law. From international law to history, it reflects on the ‘power’ of human rights norms and institutions to positively affect future historical developments and discusses the desirability and feasibility to overcome existing divides. The particular historical evolution of human rights as distinct from other domain of global governance is at the origin of its current ‘effectiveness’ crisis. The author concludes that if history may explain the relative isolation of human rights, only international law can pave the way for human rights coherent economic and development policies.