ABSTRACT
Prior to the Second World War, nationalism, diplomacy, imperialism, war and treaties were major concerns of the Western world in the international arena, a concern reflected in the writings of scholars. By the end of the war human rights had been added to the international agenda. In turn, scholarly discourse on rights was revived, which, while deriving from the intellectual heritage of the past, developed human rights into a multi-disciplinary field more focused on contemporary issues. Rights theory, which had been largely the domain of philosophers, proliferated, engaging the attention of political scientists, international legal scholars, sociologists and anthropologists.
