The Journal of Human Rights

The Journal of Human Rights

A Reflection on the Foundation of Human Rights and the Right-Claiming Subject: With Emphasis on a Critical Dialogue between Rainer Forst and Jacques Rancière

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Article

Author
Mahdi Moradi Berelian
Assistant Professor, Department of Public and International Law., Faculty of Law and Political Science, University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Mazandaran, Iran.
10.22096/hr.2026.2089797.1844
Abstract
The question of the foundation of human rights in contemporary thought is no longer merely a question concerning human nature, inherent dignity, autonomy, or fundamental interests. It has become a deeper inquiry into the possibility of the human being’s emergence as a right-claiming subject: under what conditions can the human person move beyond the status of an object of protection and appear, before power, law, and the established order, as a bearer of claims? Adopting an analytical-critical method, this article constructs a theoretical dialogue between Rainer Forst and Jacques Rancière. Forst’s theory of the right to justification shows that no human being, as a free and equal person, should be subjected to any norm, law, decision, or structure unless it can be justified through reciprocal and general reasons. Rancière, by contrast, through the concept of dissensus, reminds us that the problem of human rights is not exhausted by the validity of reasons offered by power; it also concerns the appearance of those whom the dominant order has excluded from the position of speaker, addressee of reasons, and claimant of rights. The article argues that human rights acquire their critical meaning in the creative tension between justification and dissensus.
Keywords
Right to Justification
Politics of Dissensus
Rainer Forst
Jacques Ranciè
re
Right-Claiming Subject
Subjects
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The Journal of Human Rights

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 06 September 2026