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Book review: Eric A. Posner, The Twilight of Human Rights Law, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2014, 185 pp.
The book under review not only concerns an issue that is extremely impor- tant for European lawyers but it, also, offers a set of theoretical and practical recipes for restarting human-rights discussions that, nowadays, often seem to be trapped in a deadlock. Professor Posner is famous for his critical attitude toward international law, and this book continues this criticism as far as the utilization of human rights is concerned as leeway for Western democracies to exert political influence on developing countries. This critical view, however, does not undermine their value: in fact, many things—including the most sublime ones—have been utilized for reprehensible purposes (to take the ex- ample of religious beliefs and the Inquisition). Professor Posner’s book can be an effective remedy—even if a quite bitter and disillusioning one—for curing the theoretical and practical inadequacies that are neglected by partisans of human rights.