ABSTRACT
The idea of human rights is supposed to be a central part of Enlightenment's promise, a symbol of the 'end' of history, of the triumph of 'liberal institutionalism' proclaimed by the likes of Francis Fukuyama and Anne-Marie Slaughter. The forging of the United Nations (UN) and its Declaration seemed to give certain permanence to the more ad hoc events of the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials and all the satellite war crimes trials taking place around the globe. It has been suggested that the UN Human Rights Committee could play an enhanced role in any emergent forms of global governance. From October 2000, much of the European Convention on Human Rights has been incorporated into domestic law. Allan Hutchinson suggests that the incorporation of the European Convention is a 'huge step backwards on the path to truly democratic government'. In a 1996 lecture, Tony Blair castigated the 'individualistic' liberalism exemplified by John Rawls' Theory of Justice.
