?Human Rights and (Bio)polítical Rationality

ALVAREZ, LUCIANA

Berkeley, California

Otro; CSLS Visiting Scholars Speaker Series - Fall 2015; 2015

Center for the Study of Law and Society

My researchinterest is to analyze certain contemporary political practices of human rights,related to the right of health in Latin American societies, through Foucault?sbiopolitical perspective.  A foucauldianperspective assumes that human rights, more than a law statement, involvepractices of power. But, understanding what law means, and how it works incontemporary societies, within Foucault?s framework is not an easy issue, andat the same time constitutes a question that should be answered in order to analyzehuman rights practices.The first thing we should keep in mind is that Foucaultdidn?t develop theories, not even a theory of power, so in the case of law itis no possible to find a theory of law in Foucault?s works, but it is possible,I think, to provide some ?keys? to follow Foucault?s understanding of law.