ABSTRACT
Human rights theory and activism in the early twenty-first century grew acutely concerned about the possibility of the end times of human rights in the new global system. Understanding the relationship between transnational policing and human rights involves an articulation of a very old question in social and political thought around the ontological status of law. Conventionally speaking, there are two opposite views concerning the relationship between policing and human rights: one suggests that policing is a risk or threat to human rights, while the other suggests that it is the very basis of such rights. The ambiguities of human rights discourse constitute its allure as a political ethic for global governance because it provides legitimacy for the use of power and coercion in the name of those ultimately most affected by power and coercion. The Dudus Affair tells us something about how transnational policing relates to human rights.
