Resumen de Politico-Theological Foundations of Universal Human Rights. The Case of Maritain

Miguel Vatter

• Today it has become nearly commonplace to understand the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a new, positive "basic law" for global civil society. Yet this Kelsen- inspired, positivist understanding of the UDHR covers over both the theologico-political and the bio-political presuppositions of the doctrine of "basic rights" voiced through the UDHR. In order to bring to light these dimensions of universal human rights, this paper offers an interpretation of Jacques Maritain's understanding of human rights, both prior to and after the UDHR. The article shows that Maritain understood universal human rights as part and parcel of a new "democratic" Christian political theology centered on the critique of Schmitt's conception of sovereignty. Additionally, Maritain attempted to ground the universality of human rights on a theory of human nature which is strikingly biopolitical in character and closely related to emerging neoliberal critiques of sovereignty.