Cost-Benefit Analysis and Human Rights

(Excerpt) This Article considers whether cost-benefit analysis can provide the human rights movement with the answers it seeks. It offers an instrumentalist and empirical approach to complement the normative arguments that are most often used by the human rights movement. If human rights could be fully monetized, states could consider the full range of benefits that arise from protecting rights and the costs that occur when rights are violated. This approach could provide states with a more accurate methodology for making decisions that affect human rights.

In fact, protecting human rights may prove to be costeffective, particularly when second order costs are considered, thereby offering a compelling argument for their defense.