Saving human rights from its friends : a critique of the imaginary justice of Costas Douzinas Morss, John R. 2003, Saving human rights from its friends : a critique of the imaginary justice of Costas Douzinas, Melbourne University law review, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 889-904. Attached Files Name Description MIMEType Size Downloads morss-savinghuman-2003.pdf Published version application/pdf 761.62KB 150 Title Saving human rights from its friends : a critique of the imaginary justice of Costas Douzinas Author(s) Morss, John R. orcid.org/0000-0002-0925-2525 Journal name Melbourne University law review Volume number 27 Issue number 3 Start page 889 End page 904 Publisher Melbourne University Place of publication Melbourne, Vic Publication date 2003-12 ISSN 0025-8938 1839-3810 Summary Costas Douzinas has argued that human rights arise from a universal but unconscious need for recognition of oneself by others as unique and whole. According to Douzinas, humans' activities and interrelationships are determined by their desires and human rights are a manifestation of those same deep characteristics. Because the basic desires are by their nature incapable of being satisfied, the aspiration for human rights is likewise doomed to frustration. Douzinas' analysis of human nature is derived from a reading of Jacques Lacan's theory of psychoanalysis in which an imaginary and a symbolic realm of experience are defined. Douzinas attempts a synthesis between the Lacanian imaginary and the ethical arguments of Emmanuel Levinas. It will be argued here that the synthesis proposed by Douzinas is itself doomed to failure and that Douzinas' negative approach to human rights and to justice should be rejected in favour of a positive approach. Language eng Field of Research 180114 Human Rights Law Socio Economic Objective 970118 Expanding Knowledge in Law and Legal Studies HERDC Research category C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal ERA Research output type C Journal article Copyright notice ©2003, University of Melbourne Free to Read? Yes Persistent URL http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30004093 Document type: Journal Article Collections: Faculty of Arts and Education Faculty of Business and Law Law Higher Education Research Group Open Access Collection Related Links Link Description Connect to published version (restricted access) Go to link with your DU access privileges     Unless expressly stated otherwise, the copyright for items in DRO is owned by the author, with all rights reserved. Every reasonable effort has been made to ensure that permission has been obtained for items included in DRO. If you believe that your rights have been infringed by this repository, please contact drosupport@deakin.edu.au. Versions Version Filter Type Fri, 13 Feb 2009, 08:51:38 EST Wed, 10 Jun 2009, 15:39:48 EST Tue, 18 Aug 2009, 11:45:51 EST Tue, 18 Aug 2009, 11:46:46 EST Tue, 25 Aug 2009, 15:13:08 EST Fri, 09 Apr 2010, 13:05:41 EST Fri, 28 May 2010, 16:16:08 EST Mon, 16 Jun 2014, 07:30:24 EST Mon, 01 Jun 2015, 15:09:35 EST Mon, 01 Jun 2015, 15:10:56 EST Tue, 06 Sep 2016, 09:29:15 EST Tue, 05 Dec 2017, 06:13:29 EST Mon, 22 Jan 2018, 13:52:49 EST Fri, 07 Sep 2018, 17:59:23 EST Filtered Full Citation counts:   Cited 0 times in TR Web of Science Cited 0 times in Scopus Search Google Scholar Access Statistics: 1463 Abstract Views, 150 File Downloads  -  Detailed Statistics Created: Mon, 07 Jul 2008, 09:11:52 EST