Human rights versus social practice in the Mediterranean

Abstract

Although there are significant differences between legal scholarship and other social sciences, both share an interest in the study of practice. Legal scholars generally focus on the discrepancy between social practices and the legally desired situation, while anthropologists, economists and sociologists try to understand and represent practices. At first sight these concerns appear symbiotic: the knowledge produced by other, empirically oriented, social scientists should serve to refine legal categories by developing our understanding of what can be achieved by law. However this essay will argue that obstacles exist which prevent the transmission of knowledge from the other social sciences to law. So as to identify some of these obstacles, I will explore a particular group of texts relating to the study of human rights in the Mediterranean. In the process an alternative approach to human rights will be advocated on the grounds that it would facilitate inter-disciplinary communication by re-aligning attitudes towards practice.