This course is primarily concerned with the evolution of the modern human rights regime. It discusses human rights origins as a product of the formation and expansion of Western nation-states. It juxtaposes the Western origins with competing, non-western systems of thought and practices of rights. It assesses in this context the universality of modern human rights norms. The course proceeds to discuss human rights in its two prevalent modalities. First, it discusses rights as individual protection of personhood and the modern, western notion of individualism entailed therein. Second, it discusses rights as they affect groups or states and limit their actions via international law, e.g. formal limitations on war.