ABSTRACT
Most students in the United States tend to think of human rights issues as something that is of a concern elsewhere in the world, but not the US. The US Constitution enumerates and protects our rights. There are a variety of different approaches one could take in structuring an assignment or exercise around the Constitution Project. In contrast, many countries' constitutions frame political, civil, social, and economic rights as inalienable, regardless of one's ability to pay for them. The idea that the concept of human rights is not without complicated gray areas also raised a troubling set of questions about cultural relativism with which students struggled: do human rights trump local cultures, or does the imposition of human rights violate local rights to sovereignty. The biggest challenge students faced was what to do with their new insights relative to the US Constitution. Students found that assignment is challenging to identify which countries' constitutions to select for their comparative analysis.
