This article will borrow concepts from the disciplines of political science and international relations and attempt to integrate them into a criminological framework. A key concept is that of legitimacy, along with the closely related concept of hegemony, which connects legitimacy to economic interests. A state’s legitimacy must be considered in the context of the state’s relationship to civil society and to other states, as well as of class relations within the state. This will lead us to an examination of recent work in international relations theory on the processes by which human rights become institutionalized.
