Books by Oxford academic David Robertson have featured regularly in Reference Reviews. His last effort subject to our scrutiny was the third edition of A Dictionary of Modern Politics (RR 2002/10), also published by Europa. The first edition of A Dictionary of Human Rights was issued in 1997 and reviewed in these columns by Alan Day (RR 1998/114) who concluded:
[I]t is inconceivable that any academic library serving courses in law or politics, or any self‐respecting large reference library, will not hasten to add this Dictionary to their collections.
On the assumption that many libraries did indeed rush to acquire Robertson's effort the primary question with this revised edition will therefore be does it offer significant updating and sufficient new material to again warrant priority purchase? This is a question made even more pertinent by a £110 price tag that, even for a sturdily bound hardback produced to Europa's traditional exemplary standards, may seem on the high side for less than 350 pages, especially when over 100 of these are occupied by an appendix.
Compared with its predecessor this edition has more pages (45 extra) and a greater number of entries (230 claimed as against 200). In his preface Robertson states that “the vast majority of entries have been modified at least a little” (p. 1). Trawling through the first few dozen pages this certainly appears to be the case. The opening article on abortion is modified to include two new paragraphs commenting on evolving attitudes and legislation in Europe and the US. Two pages on administrative law are partially rewritten and updated while the article Amnesty International is doubled in size. In most cases entries are modified by tacking lines and paragraphs at the end, but where necessary more thorough overhaul has been undertaken. A few articles appear totally unchanged, such as “Conseil d'Etat” and the short “Freedom of combination”, but these are very much in the minority. No articles appear to have been dropped, but a few are modified and appear under different headings, for example “Restrictions on death sentence” is now simply “Death sentence”. The 30 or so new articles cover a wide range of topics, both newly emerged and those not previously covered. Examples include “Abstract review”, “Broadcast and media rights”, “Constitutional borrowing” and “Race Relations Amendment Act (2000)”, the latter effectively supplementing and updating the main two‐page, UK focussed, Race Relations Act.
There has also been some addition to the extensive appended documentary material. The 15 original documents starting with Magna Carta 1215 and including the US Bill of Rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Right and the European Social Charter are supplemented by the less mainstream Hungarian Constitution of 1949, the 1991 Czech Charter of Fundamental Human Rights, Israeli Basic Laws and the South African Bill of Rights of 1991. Apart form an updated preface there seem to be no other changes to the dictionary. Thus there is still no index, but navigation is again assisted by the judicious use of boldface references to related articles from the text of entries. As before, there is no bibliography or further reading appended to entries. This is therefore still a “standalone” volume based very much on Robertson's individual scholarship and interests. It is not a dictionary that will lead users to further material or provide links to organizations or institutions active in the human rights field.
Since the publication of the first edition a number of other reference works have appeared in the field of human rights. Examples include Condé (1999), Maddex (2000) and Langley (1999). These join older but still useful works such as Lawson (1999). None of the new titles replicate Robertson's coverage and focus. The updating of A Dictionary of Human Rights is therefore welcome not least because, unlike some of its competitors, in has a wider UK, European and international perspective. Libraries that made the first edition their standard work of reference on human rights should not hesitate to buy this revision which consolidates the title's usefulness and reputation. Larger public reference collections or academic institutions where politics, international relations or international law are studied in any depth that somehow managed to avoid the original volume should also consider buying, even if the price tag might seem a little forbidding.
