The Cambridge History of Rights
The Cambridge History of Rights
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USDIn the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, contemporary authors explored the myriad ways in which the concept of rights could be understood, but almost always arrived at the same conclusion: it was vital that rights should never be conflated with power. Through twenty-six expertly written essays, volume three of The Cambridge History of Rights focuses on the language of rights, exploring its use in contexts as diverse as the English family, trading relations and Asian powers. This was a period in which rights came to the forefront of political discourse, making it crucial to the longer history of rights reflected in this series. By foregrounding the idea of rights in action, the volume considers the relationship between the ways in which rights were articulated – by individuals, institutions and states – and how they were enacted in practice. In doing so, it uncovers the complexities inherent in the development of the language of rights during this formative period.
- Provides a broad geographic and thematic exploration on rights as they were articulated, exercised, and experienced in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
- Focuses on rights in action – exploring the ways in which rights were used both in theory and in practice during the early modern period
- Brings together experts from a wide range of scholarly perspectives
Product details
January 2026Hardback
9781108837323
575 pages
229 × 152 mm
Not yet published - available from January 2026
Table of Contents
- Introduction Andrew Fitzmaurice and Rachel Hammersley
- 1. Roman law: the science of right Daniel Lee
- 2. Natural rights Mads Langballe Jensen
- 3. Historic rights in sixteenth-century France Sophie Nicholls
- 4. Common law rights Alan Cromartie
- 5. The rights of states to self-preservation Simone Zurbuchen
- 6. The Right of natural persons to self-preservation Rosemarie Wagner
- 7. Divine right in early modern political thought Cesare Cuttica
- 8. The right to punish Signey Gutnick Allen
- 9. The rights of war and peace Peter Schröder
- 10. The right of navigation: claiming and challenging the free sea in theory and practice Arthur Westeijn
- 11. The right to trade, 1500 –1700 Mark Somos
- 12. The right to property Andrew Fitzmaurice
- 13. Fair trials in law: imagining the rights of the accused Paul D. Halliday
- 14. Freedom of religion Stefania Tutino
- 15. The right of resistance Kajo Kubala
- 16. The Right to Political participation and representation Markku Peltonen
- 17. Rights and power in early modern feminism Hannah Dawson
- 18. Gender and rights Anna Becker
- 19. The rights of women Sharon Achinstein
- 20. The rights of the insane Angus Gowland
- 21. The rights of asylum Gaby Mahlberg
- 22. The rights of peoples in Spain and its empire Tamar Herzog
- 23. The rights of people in the English empire Ken Macmillan
- 24. Rights in the seventeenth-century French empire Saliha Belmessous
- 25. Rights, authority, and autonomy: the VOC in seventeenth century Southeast Asia Peter Borschberg.
