Human Rights: Controversial Topic In The International Law

Human Rights
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Human Rights
Since World War II, human rights has been a controversial topic in the international law. Before World War II, human rights was not a concern of international law, it was only concerned about the sovereign states. Individual person were mere objects of international law, they did not have any right nor duties. Additionally, the international law never got concerned about any injustices by nations to their people. However, after the World War II, jurisprudence began necessitating the international law to be concerned about human rights. Several legal theories exist within the realm of jurisprudence but only two have proved to be influential; natural law and positivism. According to natural law, there exists a moral law beyond human power. This implies that any man-made law should not violate the precepts that have been set by natural law. On the other hand, John Austin’s positivism holds that law and morality are distinct. It does not require man-made law to observe the moral standards for it to be valid. Positivism maintains that the validity of a law is based on the command of the “sovereign” (Altman, 2001). Although it is required that a law should coincide with moral standards, morality does not have anything to do with the validity of a law as a law (Altman, 2001).
Based on the above brief descriptions of the two theories, it is evident that they are at odds. The superiority of one in any particular scenario leads to the demise of the other. According to history no trial has proved to demonstrate the conflict between the two on the validity of a law in the protection of human...