Jack Donnelly

ph | 303.871.2563
e | jdonnell@du.edu
cv | Download
web | personal website

Cherrington Hall 304A
2201 South Gaylord St
Denver, CO 80208 USA

• Profile

As a student at Berkeley, Professor Donnelly studied political theory (principally with Hanna Pitkin) and international relations (with Ernie Haas and Ken Waltz) and did his dissertation on the development of the concept of human rights. Human rights has remained his principal scholarly interest ever since.

Most of his writings have been in the broad, multidisciplinary field of human rights. They include three books-The Concept of Human Rights, Universal Human Rights in Theory and Practice, and International Human Rights-and over 50 articles and book chapters, which have been translated into seven languages. Professor Donnelly is perhaps best known for a series of articles on human rights and cultural relativism, which advance a strong argument for a relatively universalistic approach to implementing internationally recognized human rights. He has also written on the theory of human rights, the development and functioning of international human rights regimes, human rights and development, group rights, humanitarian intervention, and democracy and human rights. A second edition of his best known book, Universal Human Rights, containing about half new material, was recently published.