¿Repensar la cultura de los derechos?

Since the 11 September terrorist attack on US or to be sure, even before, with the end of the cold war, the age of rights appears to be going through a radical crisis. Far from having been properly and definitely acknowledged as it was expected at the end of cold war, its ultimate constitutive principles as maintenance of peace, defence of democracy and (inter)national protection of fundamental rights, are actually more and more challenged and disregarded. Moreover, the culture of rights itself is getting more and more questioned and discredited. Against the overwhelming critical attitude towards the culture of rights and its distinguishing values, this paper aims at showing the weakness and inconsistency of some of the main arguments which pretend to support it. A preliminary account is provided of the age of rights, its main contentions, its different stages of development and its most problematic underpinnings.