Rights-based ethics offer a conceptual framework to address the complex ethical issues of our time. This volume combines systematic and historical perspectives on rights-based ethics with discussions of a broad range of topics in applied ethics to assess the achievements and limits of rights-based approaches.

The normative concepts of fundamental human rights and human dignity play an essential role in considerations about global justice and international politics. However, these concepts have not been taken up sufficiently in the standard approaches to normative ethics. This volume contends that rights-based approaches in ethics not only offer a theoretical framework to explain complex normative concepts but they can also offer answers to some of today’s most complex moral questions. Its chapters are divided into three thematic sections. The first section addresses the conceptual and foundational questions of rights-based ethics. The second section offers historical and cultural perspectives on rights. Finally, the third section explores how rights-based ethics can address applied issues related to climate change, health systems, global supply chains, and the finance industry.

This volume will be of interest to scholars and graduate students working in ethics, political philosophy, philosophy of law, and the social sciences.