Roman Precursors of Modern Human Rights Doctrine
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2024
Abstract
This paper begins with a brief, rather simplified account of the intellectual structure of modern International Human Rights theory as it emerged during and after the United Nations adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. It then moves on to examine two cruicial, if rather isolated, Roman literary sources that arguably anticipate the modern doctrine. The first is a passage of Cicero's De Officiis (1.105-107) which argues for the dignitas of all human beings equally. The second is the assertion in the Christian polemicist Tertullian's open letter Ad Scapulam, in which he asserts a Human Right to chose a religion. The paper suggests that both passages convey doctrine probably developed in the so-called Middle Stoa (150-50 BCE) by the philosopher Panaetius and his successors. The paper concludes by examining a persistent problem in intellectual history: how to think about the emergence of important concepts especailly in the realm of general morality.
Recommended Citation
Frier, Bruce W., "Roman Precursors of Modern Human Rights Doctrine" (2024). Public Law & Legal Theory Working Papers. 51.
https://repository.law.umich.edu/pub_law_archive/51