Introduction: rights in action Patricia Goedde and Celeste L. Arrington; Part I. Rights in Historical Perspective: 1. Legal disputes, women's legal voice, and petitioning rights in late Joseon Korea Jisoo M. Kim; 2. Defying claims of legal incompetence: women's lawsuits over separate property rights in colonial Korea Sungyun Lim; 3. 'Equal' second-class citizens: post-colonial democracy and women's rights in post-liberation South Korea Eunkyung Kim; Part II. Institutional Mechanisms for Rights Claiming: 4. A clash of claims: the diversity and effectiveness of rights claims around the Jeju 4.3 events Hun Joon Kim; 5. Advancing human rights, advancing a nation: becoming a Seonjinguk via the national human rights commission of Korea Soo-Young Hwang; 6. The constitutional court as a facilitator of fundamental rights claiming in Korea, 1988¿2018 Hannes B. Mosler; 7. Rights claiming through the courts: changing legal opportunity structures in South Korea Celeste L. Arrington; 8. Public interest lawyering in South Korea: trends in institutional development Patricia Goedde; Part III. Mobilizing Rights for the marginalized: 9. From 'we are not machines, we are humans' to 'we are workers, we want to work': the changing notion of labour rights in Korea, the 1980s-the 2000s Yoonkyung Lee; 10. From invisible beneficiaries to independent rights-holders: how the disability rights movement changed the law and Korean society JaeWon Kim; 11. The politics of postponement and sexual minority rights in South Korea Ju Hui Judy Han; 12. Discovering diversity: the anti-discrimination legislation movement in South Korea Jihye Kim and Sung Soo Hong; Part IV. Shaping Rights for New and Non-citizens: 13. The rights of non-citizenship: migrant rights and hierarchies in South Korea Erin Aeran Chung; 14. Claiming citizenship: rights claiming and recognition for North Koreans entering South Korea Sheena Chestnut Greitens; Conclusion: findings and future directions Celeste L. Arrington and Patricia Goedde; Index.