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Government(ality) by experts: human rights as governance
The suggestion that the general economy of power in our societies is becoming a domain of security was made by Michel Foucault in the late 1970s. This paper takes inspiration from Foucault’s work to interpret human rights as tech- nologies of governmentality, which make possible the safe and secure society. I examine, by way of illustration, the site of the European Union and its use of new modes of governance to regulate rights discourse—in particular via the emergence of a new Fundamental Rights Agency. ‘Governance’ in the EU is constructed in an apolitical way, as a departure from traditional legal and juridical methods of gov- erning. I argue, however, that the features of governance represent technologies of government(ality), a new form of both being governed through rights and of gov- erning rights. The governance feature that this article is most interested in is experts. The article aims to show, first and foremost, how rights operate as tech- nologies of governmentality via a new relation to expertise. Second, it considers the significant implications that this reading of rights has for rights as a regulatory and normalising discourse. Finally, it highlights how the overlap between rights and governance discourses can be problematic because (as the EU model illustrates) governance conceals the power relations of governmentality, allowing, for instance, the unproblematic representation of the EU as an international human rights actor.
History
Publication status
- Published
Journal
Law and CritiqueISSN
0957-8536Publisher
Springer VerlagExternal DOI
Issue
3Volume
22Page range
251-271Department affiliated with
- Law Publications
Full text available
- No
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2016-11-14Usage metrics
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