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Part II Historical and Legal Sources, Ch.7 The Foundations of Justice and Human Rights in Early Legal Texts and Thought

Paul Gordon Lauren

From: The Oxford Handbook of International Human Rights Law

Edited By: Dinah Shelton

From: Oxford Public International Law (http://opil.ouplaw.com). (c) Oxford University Press, 2023. All Rights Reserved.date: 27 September 2023

Subject(s):
Access to justice — Freedom of expression — Ethnicity — Race

This article examines the contributions of early legal texts and thoughts to the development of the concept of justice and human rights. It analyses ideas about justice and human rights in ancient Near and Middle East, ancient China, ancient India, Classical Greece and Rome, the Medieval Period, the Renaissance, and the Enlightenment Period. It considers the relevant works of several ancient thinkers including Mencius, Plato and Cicero and suggests that they provided significant lessons and laid the essential foundations for developments that eventually would result in international human rights law.

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