Inventivity

But it does not seem quite evident that M. [Adolphe] Thiers is justified in taking to himself, or to his Administration, the sole merit of this situation. It is a consequence of the solidity and productive power of the country, rather than of any inventivity of his.

The word “invention” is often used in a broader context than patent. Invention may refer to conceptual theories, ideas in the decorative arts, passages in literature, novel computing programs, and so on. Such inventions have costs associated with them, so the notion of inventivity might be applicable, but the viewpoint of this book is limited to the practical arts.

The episode offers a clear example of human rights bodies developing a doctrine, motivated perhaps by the need to ensure an effective protection of human rights, but which is difficult to reconcile with an orthodox (some might say conservative) view of international law. That this development was made possible by a number of human rights bodies moving in the same direction and, in part, legitimizing their interpretative inventivity by referring to one another’s case law, seems hardly contestable.