Travelling Concepts: Harold Laski’s Disciples and The Evolution of the Human Rights Idea in Republican China (1919-49)

This article examines the idea of human rights as a “travelling concept” through a case study of Harold Laski’s long neglected but very significant influence on the evolution of human rights, one of the key concepts that has emerged in China’s search for modernity and democracy. This study draws on biographies and publications of the Chinese intellectuals who were highly influenced by Laski. In so doing, this article explores the ways in which Laski’s conception of rights was translated and recast by his disciples as a human rights idea in Republican China (1911-49). The findings of this study shed new light on our understanding of the ways in which legal concepts may “travel” across different contexts.