This book brings together penetrating philosophical critiques of human rights from the postcolonialist and post-Althusserian perspectives. Its balanced structure does not just throw these two lines of critique together, but actually forces them into confrontation and dialogue. At either end of the book, the postcolonialist and post-Althusserian positions are represented by their key thinkers (Ratna Kapur, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Upendra Baxi; Slavoj Zizek, Jacques Ranciere), while the two essays in the middle (Richard Rorty, Wendy Brown) further problematize and complicate their confrontation. The editors' introduction and conclusion create a face-off while laying out the essential contours of these critiques. The readers are left to determine which side is more persuasive.