Human Rights in Crisis: The Sacred and the Secular in Contemporary French Thought (review)

In Britain, where the leaders of the two main political parties have called for the revision or scrapping of the Human Rights Act, the public debate about human rights has been largely a confused mixture of contested pragmatic 'common sense', political opportunism and populism. In France, the issue may not have enjoyed such prominence in the mass media, but it has been addressed by numerous French thinkers and writers each drawing on a range of political, social and philosophical notions to support their respective positions. In this study, which sets out to provide a deeper understanding of the French perspective on human rights, Souillac has chosen to examine the writings of four thinkers: Marcel Gauchet, historian and philosopher and co-founder of the journal Le Débat; Blandine Kriegel, professor of philosophy and president of the French Council on integration; Luc Ferry, philosopher and Minister of Education from 2002 to 2004; and another philosopher, Étienne Balibar, former collaborator of Louis Althusser. Souillac shows how there has been a shift in French thought away from an emphasis on theory towards an engagement with contemporary practical issues, for example social cohesion, democratic renewal and marginalization. More specifically she explores how the thinkers she has chosen examine the philosophical/ historical underpinnings of the contemporary notion of human rights and the relationship between human rights and the regeneration of democracy. All four thinkers confirm the role of the French intellectual as social critic and all share a belief that human rights are in crisis, but the 'radicals', Gauchet and Balibar, focus on the democratic deficit of contemporary societies, while the 'reformists', Ferry and Kriegel, re-examine the notion of human rights within the European philosophical tradition.

Gauchet revisits the parliamentary debates of 1789 and 1793 and concludes that democracy has failed both to generate the political commitment envisaged by the revolutionaries and the social cohesion which was considered necessary for the democratic good. Balibar, too, stresses the importance of social cohesion and democratic unity and attacks the social injustice and political and civic disempowerment that characterize contemporary European democracies. Both Ferry and Kriegel share an uncritical commitment to universalism, but whereas Kriegel adopts an historical- philosophical conceptual approach to argue that the genealogy of natural law 'provides the moral, political and metaphysical philosophy of the human condition as a necessary grounding for human rights' (p. 51), Ferry builds his neo-humanist defence of human rights around the notions of subjective will and inter-subjectivity. Souillac has provided not only a clear exposition but also a thoughtful critique of the views of these thinkers which are set out in separate chapters. In addition, the author's decision to highlight similarities and differences across the chapters gives the book an overarching coherence, allowing Souillac to identify key themes and issues and provide the reader with an insightful and thought-provoking account of this important contemporary debate.