The world has undergone a transformation of international
systems, from a Westphalian system of nation-states, to a
post-Westphalian international system based on transnational
institutions. This post-Westphalian system sees state power
devolve to local, or even private, entities and [*220] assigns rights and
duties under international law to non-state actors. n1 Because human
rights law assigns legal rights and duties under international
law to non-state actors, it is a key feature of the
post-Westphalian system. In order to determine whether, and
how, human rights serve as an element in post-Westphalian
global governance, we must examine first whether human rights
are universal. If human rights are, or can be, universal then
we must examine the historical development of human rights.
II. THE PARADIGM SHIFT: FROM SOVEREIGN STATES TO INDIVIDUAL
RIGHTS
The paradigm shift from a system which regarded only states as
subjects of international law, n2 enjoying absolute and inviolable power within
their own borders, to a system which constrained the absolute
power of the state, recognized non-state actors as having
rights and duties under international law, and ultimately
protected individuals against state and private actors n3 by
recognizing non-state actors as having both rights and duties
under international law, n4 occurred in several fields simultaneously. As a
result n5 of the horrors of the Second World War, n6 the second
failure of the Westphalian system to maintain global peace in
as many generations, individuals and organisations were tried
for crimes under international law: n7 crimes against peace, crimes against humanity n8 and war
crimes n9 at the Nuremberg Trials. n10 The defences raised by the accused - [*221] sovereign immunity,
official immunity, n11 nullum crimen sine
lege, n12 respondeat superior, n13 compulsion n14 and one's duty to obey n15 the orders of a lawfully appointed superior n16 - were all,
for various reasons, rejected.
Knowingly or not, however, in assigning a legal duty to
individuals to obey certain norms entailing an obligation erga omnes n17 - to disobey, under certain
circumstances, the command of the sovereign - the
International Military Tribunal broke from the Westphalian
model.
Just as noteworthy as the break from the Westphalian system,
the Tribunal also was forced to recognize universal principles
of natural justice. n18 The non-retroactivity of law (no ex post facto criminal
laws) was a principle of law since at least the French Declaration des Droits de l'Homme, n19 although Hobbes did mention the principle earlier.
n20
These breaches of the enlightenment principle of legality,
crime would be defined only prior to its commission, and the
Westphalian principle of the hermetic nature of sovereignty,
might have been regarded as particular exceptions resulting
from unique circumstances. Philosophically however they could
only be justified via a theory of natural law: n21 the war crimes were such a basic, and
self-evident, violation of the inherent dignity [*222] of humans that they
were implicitly prohibited under ius
naturale. n22 Thus, in order to escape accusations of violating
the principle nullum crimen, nulla
poena, sine praevia lege, n23 the court
had to acknowledge arguments based on a theory of universal
law - natural justice.
The courts at Nuremberg and in Eichmann thus could not escape from the idea of morality.
Nor could they escape from the idea that all that is moral, is
also lawful (and possibly even from the idea that all that is
immoral, is also unlawful - because the defense of many of the
criminals was that they were following orders). And this,
despite the fact that until then the entire tendency of legal
theory, at least since the year 1880, tended toward
positivism, with theories of natural law dismissed as
pre-scientific, wishful thinking or even naivete. However,
looking at legislation, clearly much immorality is perfectly
legal. This aporime explains why these cases are problematic,
and why natural law will continue to haunt positivism. The
only way out of this dilemma is to recognize law is about
force; justice is about morality. Positivism and natural law
can, in fact, be linked (as Hobbes and Aristotle did) n24 by
distinguishing natural law (lex naturale) n25 from natural justice. Justice is about morality, and an unjust law,
while positively obligatory, is not legally binding - as
Cicero, n26 Aquinas, n27 and many others discussed. Only through
distinguishing [*223] the two, can the supposed dichotomy between
positivism and natural law be resolved. n28
Nuremberg was not only remarkable because it
broke from the Westphalian model and raised serious
theoretical implications, it was also problematic. The
victorious powers had also committed acts of dubious legality
- mass aerial bombardment of civilian populations, n29 the use of
chemical weapons (specifically, white phosphorous) and even
atomic bombardment. n30 The shadow of Nuremberg points an accusing finger
at those who judged, but were not themselves judged. n31 Perhaps for
this reason (i.e. the need to provide legitimacy to the
post-war order and the decisions at Nuremberg), and certainly
because of the depth of devastation, the international legal
system was irrevocably changed through the establishment of
limitations on sovereign power: states would no longer have
the right to launch wars of aggression, and could only resort
to force in self-defense. n32 An international governing body, the United
Nations, with the power to approve or disapprove of the use of
force, n33 arose like a Phoenix out of the ashes of the
failed League of Nations, and devastated continents.
Ultimately the post-war system outlawed wars of aggression; n34 recognized a
right to humanitarian assistance n35 and a right of humanitarian [*224] intervention; n36 accorded
rights and duties to non-state actors, including
non-governmental organisations (NGOs); n37 recognized
individual and corporate liability in crime, or in tort, under
international human rights law; and guaranteed human rights in
international declarations, resolutions, and conventions. At
the same time, universal n38 jurisdiction expanded. n39 State powers at the national level have
simultaneously 1) devolved "downward" to regional, provincial,
and municipal entities; 2) transferred "upward" to supra-national economic
and political organisations; and 3) privatised "outward" to
corporations. Meanwhile, individuals and other non-state
actors increasingly are accorded rights and duties under
international law. All of these changes have imposed real
limits on, and expose the greatly reduced role of, the,
formerly, absolute sovereign power of "The State."
Any of these facts alone might be seen as mere derogations
from the Westphalian system. But, taken together, it is
similar to the problem of the ship of Theseus: if enough
planks are replaced in Theseus' ship (here the Westphalian
system), is it still his ship? n40 The author is of the opinion that the rise of
continental and global free-trading regimes such as MERCOSUR,
the E.U., the Andean Pact, NAFTA, ASEAN, coupled [*225] with global trading
regimes (WTO, GATS and TRIPS), each featuring binding
adjudication and governance mechanisms, implies the present
system is a post-Westphalian system. States are no longer
primary actors, but rather one actor among many others. The
post-Westphalian system could be compared, speaking very
approximately, to the Holy Roman Empire or perhaps even the
Austro-Hungarian Empire; several different peoples and
religions subject to nominal political entities (the E.U.,
MERCOSUR, the U.N.) which guarantee liberal trade and protect
minorities. However, the contemporary multinational system is
not merely continental - it is global. Today, international
law, led by the U.N., recognizes, and to some extent even
guarantees, human rights. What caused this paradigm shift? How
were these new rights - now inherent in individuals and
groups, not in states - grounded?
A. ELABORATION OF GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS NORMS: OPINIO JURIS
Historically, the legal imputation to, and acquisition of
rights by, individuals in the post-war world, can be analyzed
as having been driven by transnational and conventional global
systems. n41 Because human rights claim to be universal, and
because individual human rights most seriously challenge the
assumptions of the Westphalian system, our primary focus will
be on the discovery of individual rights at the global level.
In fact, transnational efforts, such as the European Court of
Human Rights, have been even more successful at imputing
rights to individuals than global efforts. However, the claim
that the post-Westphalian order imputes legal rights to
individuals can be best demonstrated by analysing the claim at
its boldest, and weakest, point - the creation of weak, but
universal, human rights protections under the aegis of the U.N. and
regional convention systems.
One feature of the post-Westphalian world is the rise of a
series of interlocking U.N. conventions based on universal
norms, n42 which this author refers to as "the U.N.
convention system." n43 These conventions, which can also be found at the
regional level, whether continental n44 or hemispheric, n45 are promulgated by international organizations
seeking to protect [*226] human rights and guarantee freedom of commerce.
These organization promulgate these conventions because
liberal economic theory postulates that free trade increases
prosperity and reduces the likelihood of war by de-linking
economy and territory.
The transformation of the Westphalian system has occurred via a functionalist
proliferation of treaties, n46 which are either general or specific as to their
subject matter, are either regional n47 or global n48 in jurisdiction, and which aspire to attract
voluntary, universal membership. n49 The convention system is, in fact, widely adhered
to: "three-quarters or more of United Nations member states
have ratified five of the six human rights treaties." n50 These
networks of norms have been constantly expanding and are
interlocking, i.e. they are mutually reinforcing. n51
The various human rights treaties usually
feature enforcement mechanisms including, generally, an expert
monitoring body with power to hear petitions from state
parties, and sometimes even from individuals n52 or other
non-state actors. n53 These usually include an obligation to submit
reports n54 to a committee, n55 and a right (sometimes optional) n56 of states
against other states and, possibly, individual rights of
action. For example, the Human Rights Committee, the Committee
on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the Committee
against Torture, all offer individual [*227] complaint
procedures. n57 However, these conventions are often subject to
reservations. n58
Nevertheless, this process can be properly
called the constitutionalization of a new body of
international law, international human rights law, with very
different presumptions and goals than the now defunct
Westphalian system. n59 This system, n60 an interlocking network of conventions, thus
contributes to the post-Westphalian system of global
governance. n61 For example, the function of the International
Bill of Rights - i.e. the UDHR, the ICCPR and the CESCR - is
to change the behavior of states. n62 The supplementary treaties on race (Convention on
the Elimination of Racial Discrimination - CERD), n63 gender
(Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women - CEDAW) n64 and children, n65 similarly seek to change the behavior of states.
National courts regard the decisions, for example of the HRC,
as at least persuasive evidence n66 of law, n67 and should, and sometimes do, interpret domestic
law as necessarily consistent with international obligations.
n68
[*228] Thus, the implementation of human rights n69 by the U.N.
is one more functionalist success story. Rather than trying to
achieve the immediately unattainable, the U.N. has
consistently, and practically, chosen to achieve the possible
- all the while seeking to expand the reach of the laws it has
sponsored n70 and to ultimately achieve goals which at the time
of promulgation were unattainable. Compare this aspect of
functionalism to a ratchet: the U.N. has actively pushed
incrementally in a single direction to expand and extend human
rights n71 while successfully resisting any reversionary
efforts to restrict or push back those human rights
protections already achieved. Thus, while human rights are
still far from secure, the, admittedly limited, protection
human rights offer is constantly, albeit gradually, expanding.
n72
While all the above is true, serious
limitations to this system still exist. For example, the
conventions generally permit reservations n73 and
enforcement protocols are usually optional. n74 There are
practical reasons for this, mainly to ensure that as many
states as possible n75 will participate. n76 Permitting reservations and making enforcement
protocols optional is defensible because it permits the
formation of the opinio juris n77 [*229] needed to create customary n78 and binding
international law, n79 of which the conventions n80 are evidence.
In practical terms, how can the U.N. be said to have
"ratcheted" human rights up? To speak of the "crystallisation"
of human rights law is to describe this process. International
human rights law often finds its origin as universal ideals -
not as binding law. These ideals, however, are expressed in
non-binding, universal instruments. n81 This is not merely hypocritical n82 whitewash of
brutal realities: universal, non-binding instruments are
promulgated in order to form the opinio
juris of an international custom, n83 which may
then ripen into customary law. n84 Further, the ideals presented in human rights
declarations, resolutions and conventions represent moral
goals and standards which cannot be resisted because of their
universal appeal and the legitimising power of democracy.
Democracy, or at least popular consent, is theoretically the
legitimating norm n85 sine qua non of almost all regimes. Even the undemocratic are
attracted to universalist human rights ideals. Thus, in
practice, international human rights norms, such as the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, n86 are
identified in hortatory declarations by the U.N. These
hortatory declarations "merely" identify goals - of the entire
global community.
[*230]
Paradoxically, however, the non-binding human rights, goals
and ideals thus constitute opinio
juris, n87 one element of customary law. n88 States
believe that they "ought" to observe human rights; creating
the sense of obligation required for the opinio juris needed to
form customary international law, n89 which, in turn, is evidenced by states adhering or
acceding to the instruments, and even by their silence in the
face of universal adoption of such instruments. n90
States at this stage could present objections
to human rights. They could present themselves as persistent
objectors, n91 and thus avoid being the subject of any customary
law later developing out of those norms. However, to be
persistent objectors, states must manifest dissent to the
international custom openly, notoriously and objectively. n92 No state can
do this and retain credibility and legitimacy in the
international arena. No state wishes to go on record as
favouring torture. No state wishes to affirm the inferior
status of women. No state will admit to being racist - because
to do so would be to de-legitimate that state, both before its
own people, and before the international community. The idea
of human rights is, in fact, so attractive, that it is
literally impossible for all but the most tyrannical of states
to deny their existence and retain credibility as legitimate
expressions of popular will. n93 Thus there are rarely, if ever, persistent
objectors to the normative goals of the hortatory declarations
of human rights.
Human rights are also attractive because of practical reasons.
The eventuality that a binding norm might arise out of a
non-binding one seems so remote that states did not, and do
not, object to hortatory, non-binding [*231] human rights goals.
Because states dare not call into question their own
legitimacy; because the remote prospect of future obligation
is so slight as compared to the cost of risking legitimacy;
and even for reasons of power politics, states cannot, and do
not, attack the legitimacy of human rights and thus rarely, if
ever, can be seen as persistent objectors.
States support human rights not merely for defensive
legitimation purposes but also for the instrumentalist reasons
of Realpolitik. n94 Human rights can be an instrument of foreign
policy. n95 The state that supports human rights has a weapon.
That weapon may be weak. It may be readily discarded. However,
the weapon of human rights can be wielded in negotiations
which appear, at first glance, to have nothing to do with
human rights or in surprising n96 contexts. n97 The U.S.-Chinese trade relations is but one
example where, even if human rights are only a pretext for
substantive goals, they are, nevertheless, supported and
defended. n98 No state wishes to renounce a potential tool in
its diplomatic toolkit. The cost of observing most human
rights is relatively low. Consequently, states observe human
rights and even claim to promulgate them for reasons of Realpolitik. n99 Conversely,
states do not reject human rights norms, at least as merely
hortatory goals, because to do so would deny them the ability
to criticize other states credibly when those other states
violate human rights. However, the Realpolitik of human rights can only partly validate the
realist position because a realist analysis would have to
ignore the role of the U.N., ignoring the facts. Regardless of
methodological disputes, human rights have acquired the opinio juris needed to
ripen into customary law for the above-mentioned reasons. n100 The first
step in the evolution of a binding legal norm from non-binding
political [*232] statements is the identification of a universal
norm that, even if non-binding, is universally recognized as a
goal to be striven towards.
B. ENFORCEMENT OF GLOBAL NORMS: STATE PRACTICE
Opinio juris
is, however, only one element of customary international law.
The other aspect is state practice. In order for a custom to
become binding law, it must, in practice, be obeyed and be
considered obligatory. At least within the developed world,
the norms of international human rights law are, generally,
already observed in domestic law. Further, the U.N. has
created a series of conventions which also reflect an
increasing practice of states recognizing international human
rights. The ICCRP n101 and ICESCR, n102 as well as the CEDAW and CAT, include optional
enforcement clauses or optional enforcement protocols. It is
through these conventions and the practice of national law
that the praxis required to support the finding of a customary
law can be recognized.
This two-step approach to human rights shows why the U.N.
conventions can be seen as operating as a "ratchet." This
approach also has the advantage that, over time, it may lead
to the crystallisation of a customary rule in international
law, going further than that of the treaty norm to bind
non-parties, also.
C. INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS
Determining who has a claim to a right, the state or an
individual, is as important in the genealogy of rights as
determining the content of that right. Further, in practice,
the question "who has a right" is logically antecedent to the
question "what right exists." Sometimes the U.N. conventions
(ICCPR, ICESCR, CEDAW, CAT, CERD etc.) recognize rights
already inhering in individuals, which they may now enforce
against states, sometimes the conventions merely create duties
on the part of states toward each other.
The question whether, and when, individual legal rights or
duties shall be recognized turns on the goals of international
law and whether such rights and duties hinder or help achieve
those goals. The primary goal of international law is to
impose order. n103 Order does not necessarily entail [*233] justice. The primacy
of legal order is generally justified for practical reasons:
without order there can be neither peace, nor justice.
Consequently, claims of individual justice are generally
secondary in the international hierarchy of norms to claims of
order. But is that view entirely correct?
In fact, claims for justice may strengthen the international
legal order. That is, a claim for justice and a fact of order
are generally mutually reinforcing. While it is true that
order and peace are necessary prerequisites to justice; peace
and order are also consequences of justice. Thus, a just
system is also orderly, but an orderly system is not
necessarily just. Furthermore, a tyrannical order is
inherently unstable. At some point, repression gives way to
resistance and rebellion. Thus, where claims of justice and
order are mutually reinforcing, the international legal system
will seek to impose not only order, but also justice.
This argument is based on the general principle that law is
logically structured (both by principles of hierarchy and
symmetry); is guided by practical reasoning; and follows a
teleology favoring peace and prosperity. Thus, the
international legal system may even be said to defend justice
when its defense does not hinder the maintenance of order.
That may be the case of humanitarian intervention or of the
right to national self-determination. Granting individuals a
legal right to a remedy for violations of human rights will
discourage tyrannical orders from violating human rights,
thereby assuring that the stability of the international order
is not founded on terror. Rather than insuring the false
stability of tyrannical orders, the international system
protects individuals against injustice by according them
protections against the most egregious violations of
international jus cogens norms. International law sees order as a general
precondition for peace and prosperity. However, this general
principle does admit some exceptions, and its telos, peace and
prosperity, explains the limits of the principle that the
international system seeks to create and maintain a stable,
peaceful and prosperous world order.
Recognizing that individuals have rights and duties under
international law is not only contemporary practice, it is
also logical. This transformation - from a system predicated
on maintaining order prior to justice, toward a system
predicated on justice in order to preserve order - can be seen
in the third-generation rights n104 to democracy, peace and development. n105 [*234] It can also be seen
in the rights to humanitarian assistance n106 and
humanitarian intervention. It can even be seen in the right to
national self-determination. n107 While that transformation is far from complete, it
is clear that the international system is moving from a logic
of "order will ensure peace and eventually obtain justice" to
a logic that "justice will encourage peace." As the
international system moves toward justice as its primary goal,
and away from order as its primary goal, any pretensions that
the world is still Westphalian become increasingly untenable.
Recent case law is increasingly recognizing that both natural
and legal persons can owe duties under international law
toward other individuals (Flick; n108 Krupp), n109 or even have rights against individuals (Marcos n110 ; Alien
Tort Claims Act) which arise out of the law of nations, both
in civil (Kadic v Karadzic) n111 and penal law (Eichmann). n112 These cases show the resolution of tension between
state and individual claims and the evolution of binding
custom from non-binding hortatory declarations. According
rights and duties to individuals, with corresponding remedies,
will serve the goal of achieving and maintaining a just, and
thus stable, international order.
Despite limitations on the protection of human rights, the
U.N. convention system does protect individual rights by
granting a remedy to both states and non-state actors. Note
that these protections are constantly expanding. The U.N.
convention system constitutes part of an international [*235] system of global
governance n113 using functionalist methods, which breaks from the
Westphalian model of states as hermetic monopolists of
legitimate authority. For, under the Westphalian system, only
states could have rights and duties under international law,
and could not be held accountable for their acts vis-a-vis their subjects
within their borders. These treaties, in contrast, recognize
rights inhering in individuals. This constitutes more evidence
of the fact that the international system has definitively
broken from the Westphalian system to create institutions of
global governance, a fact which is also proven by the
proliferation of treaties by intergovernmental organizations
changing inter-state relations since 1945. n114
The principle of sovereignty has declined at
exactly the same moment as the principle of human rights has
risen. How do these facts influence our theoretical
perspective?
III. THE UNIVERSALITY OF HUMAN RIGHTS n115
The idea of human rights is, at first glance, a
vague and ambiguous concept. n116 For this very reason, though, the idea has a
universal appeal, being all things to all men. Though
problematic, n117 the claim of human rights to universalism is valid
- and indeed globalism and universalism can, in theory, be
complementary movements and certainly correlate in practice. n118 Humanists
point to the common needs and aspirations of all persons as
evidence of a common humanity, which is the foundation of
universal rights. This humanist ideal has undergone much
historical development over time. Is the idea of human rights
universal, and if so, in [*236] what sense? If, and only if, human rights are
universal, can they be a pillar of the post-Westphalian order.
Furthermore, because the historical transformations in the
conception of human rights influence the positive law, they
condition, limit, and even direct the content of the law.
The imputation of legal rights and duties to individuals under
international law often occurs via human rights. However, while human rights are a
key feature of the post-Westphalian state system, human rights
will only be a stable structural element of that system if
they are, in fact, universal. n119 Despite theoretical confusion n120 and
cultural clash, n121 which obscure their sources, n122 resulting
in difficulty in defining rights, n123 the idea of human rights is indeed universal.
Consequently, human rights can impute rights and duties to
non-state actors and will be a key feature of the
post-Westphalian order. n124
Our first demonstration of the universality of
human rights n125 is a negative proof. The universality of human
rights is, in fact, demonstrated by the very existence of
these debates. Were human rights not an idea with universal
aspects, these debates would not exist. However, merely
acknowledging a universal concept of "human rights" does not
help determine what that concept is, and whether that concept
is also universal.
Fortunately, this negative proof n126 of the universality of human rights is not the
only one available. A more ambitious, affirmative
demonstration [*237] of the universality of human rights is also
possible; n127 founded upon a neo-Aristotelian understanding of
human nature. This understanding (unlike Aristotle), which
posits a mutually reinforcing relationship between human
rights and the rule of law, n128 also posits gender and racial equality. But this
relationship is not determined by the formal legalism of the
methods of the rule of law. Rather it is determined by the
substantive achievements of human rights - i.e. whether those
rights function as a means to obtain and secure what Aristotle
termed "the good life." n129 Human rights are, thus, a means to the end of
political society, which insure and obtain not merely life,
but the good life, for the members of the polity. n130 For this
reason, human rights are universal. n131 All humans have universally common capacities,
needs, desires, and an interest in prospering. Human rights
are the means to a universally desired end. While admitting
variation for practical reasons, a common teleology ensures
that certain core elements are universal.
Finally, a pragmatic argument for the universality of human
rights is also possible. Looking at positive law, the
universality of human rights is a legal fact recognized by
international law. n132 This argument, like the first argument that human
rights must exist since everyone is talking about them, is
not, alone, particularly strong. Even tyrants assert the
justice of their tyranny. However, the negative argument and
the practical argument complement and strengthen the
teleological argument. This argument can be further
strengthened by inquiring into the nature of rights.
A. RIGHTS AND DUTIES
Are human rights an inherent and inalienable consequence of
humanity? Or, are human rights essentially conditioned on
acquiescence in, or performance of, societal duties? To some
extent, this is a false dichotomy. For every right, there is a
corresponding duty. n133 If I have a right to life, [*238] you have a duty not
to kill me. Nonetheless, this debate persists. Because to say,
simply, that rights and duties are two sides of the same coin,
does not tell us exactly what those rights and duties are. It
also does not tell us how to resolve doubtful cases where
rights and duties are in conflict. However, when questioning
whether the third world believes in human rights, it may help
to remember that the third world sponsored "New International
Economic Order" (NIEO) by a resolution before the U.N. General
Assembly NIEO n134 in 1974, n135 proposing a charter of economic rights and duties.
n136
Third world scholars accept the idea of economic development,
one of the keystones of modernity, as the sine qua non of existence.
n137
The question whether rights arise from duties
reflects the north-south debate. Representing the global
south, Asian n138 schools of thought, n139 whether Islamic, n140 Hindu, n141 Confucian, n142 or Buddhist, n143 tend to see not rights, but rather duties as
primary, and to recognize rights only as a consequence of duty
fulfilled. n144 In contrast, western schools of thought, notably ius naturale, n145 tend to see
the foundation of human rights on certain inalienable,
inherent capacities of humans, n146 generally speaking [*239] rationality, though Christian theologians n147 would
combine that theory with the idea that that rationality is a
reflection of divine perfection. n148
Ius naturale is
generally contrasted with positivism, n149 not only in national law but also in international
law. n150 That split can also be traced to the treaty of
Westphalia. n151 However, the opposition of positivism to
naturalism is usually inexact, and often leads to confusion. n152
As Sohn concisely demonstrates, the split
between positivism and natural law is a false dichotomy.
Positive law and natural law can be complementary. n153 Per Sohn, this is because
natural law concerns those inalienable rights, whereas
positive law concerns alienable rights. n154 Sohn
further draws the logical conclusion that those elements of
international law which are jus
cogens are a reflection of natural
law, whereas those human rights that are derogable are a
reflection of positive law. n155 This, of course, could be an extension of
Aristotle. For Aristotle, nature (physis) concerns that which is unchangeable (i.e. natural
law), that which cannot be otherwise; nature is to be
contrasted, per Aristotle, from tekhne (gr.) or arte (lat.), that which can be other than it is (i.e.
man made, or positive law). For Sohn, natural law concerns the
unchangeable and positive law that which is variable.
Rubin also accurately described the same splits n156 as Sohn.
However, unlike Sohn, Rubin does not appear to synthesize
them. Whether Rubin realises it or not, determining where one
stands on these splits is a matter of science, not opinion. A
scientific position is an objective reflection of material
facts, not a subjective expression of feelings.
[*240]
The science of law is sometimes challenged, though generally
only implicitly, by post-modern denials of the existence of
objectivity, truth, and in ultimo, western culture (its existence or values).
Post-modernism can, however, pose radical questions: such as,
why roughly 80 percent of the world controls roughly 20
percent of global resources, and whether war is inevitable.
However, in rejecting objectivity, and thus knowledge,
post-modernism throws out the good with the bad. Because of
its presumptions, post-modernism cannot benefit from the
earlier work of any social theory. For the post-modernist,
objectivity does not, and cannot, exist. Taking the
post-modernists seriously is difficult: their presumptions are
contrary to common sense. However, one must take postmodernism
seriously, because the post-modernists' denial of basic
presumptions of modernity such as objectivity, science, and
progress, permits them to pose serious questions. However, the
rejection of the presumptions of modernity prevents
post-modernists from formulating coherent answers to the
fundamental questions posed.
Returning to the natural law/positivism dichotomy, the usual
supposition, of an opposition between positivism and
naturalism, is also inapposite for less brilliant reasons than
Sohn provides. For example, a naturalist theory, such as
Hobbes' theory, proposes that natural law is nothing other
than the law of the jungle, that is, the law of the strong,
survival of the fittest. n157 An alternate school of ius
naturale, put forward most famously by
Cicero, n158 and later Aquinas, n159 argues that, only laws which are founded in
morality or rationality, are valid. The author regards the
former theory (Hobbes) as natural law (per Hobbes, lex naturale), and the
latter (Cicero and Aquinas) as natural justice. Both are
branches of ius non scripta.
Just as there is a descriptive and prescriptive
theory of ius non scripta (natural law and natural justice respectively)
there are also descriptive and prescriptive versions of
positivism. Descriptive positivism limits itself to describing
law as it is. Prescriptive positivism does not prescribe what
the law should be; rather, it describes what it perceives as
correct methods of legal science. Kelsen, n160 following
Weber n161 is an example of [*241] a prescriptive positivist. Much of the supposed
conflict between positivism and naturalism can be resolved by
correctly understanding which strand of theory is being
considered. Prescriptive theories of natural law are,
necessarily, in conflict with prescriptive theories of
positivism. Purely descriptive theories however cannot be in
conflict methodologically, since they only claim to describe
reality as it is.
As Nigel Purvis notes, the claim that positivism is purely
descriptive explains some of its success in capturing the
legal imagination. n162 Most natural law theories, with the notable
exception of Hobbes, n163 are, in fact, theories of natural justice, and, as
such, are prescriptive. However, Purvis, like many others, may
be underestimating the methodological difficulties which
plague naturalism due to an all too common failure among
natural law theorists to clearly distinguish prescription from
description. Since a descriptive positivism has a more limited
task than a prescriptive naturalism, it necessarily generates
a simpler theory, which is less open to criticism. However,
this theory is descriptively incomplete (no cognition of whole
entities, i.e. the sum is always equal and never greater than
its parts thus no synergies) n164 and is, essentially, powerless (except in its
implicit affirmation of the status quo) because it does not
prescribe. Positivism, like "realism," pursues a much less
ambitious theoretical objective than naturalism or holism, but
for this very reason, it is also less influential. In
contrast, when naturalist and holist theories fail, their
failures tend to be glaringly obvious, even spectacular, due
to "pure" [*242] eidetic noesis, i.e. philosophical idealism divorced from material
reality. Positivist theories, in contrast, are confined to
safer positions. n165
Methodologically, n166 the split between positivism and naturalism tracks
and parallels the splits between materialism and idealism,
between atomism and holism, and between realism and
transformationism. However, though materialism, atomism,
positivism and realism tend to be reinforcing, and though
historically holism and idealism are usually associated with
each other, the connection of these different theories to each
other is not a necessary one. This author, for example, takes
a holistic, materialistic view that compels him to a
transformationist theory. Hobbes, in contrast, is a
materialist atomist who, however, takes a position of natural
law, though his "natural law" is in fact, the law of the
jungle! n167 Only by expressing these theoretical differences,
and clearly delineating them, can post-Westphalian theorists
hope to transcend the failures and limitations of the
Westphalian state theory.
This relationship between positivism and natural justice
contextualizes and guides this paper's theory of human rights.
The rights and duties theories appear at first to present a
fundamentally irreconcilable duality. However, though there
are mutually exclusive dualities, there are also dualities
which are, in fact, not absolutely opposite and mutually
exclusive (discontinuous entities), but rather which are
different, not in kind but in degree. Such dualities are
continuous entities. n168 Logically, a materialist atomist must believe that
the universe is discontinuous, since only discontinuous
entities resolve into discrete elements. Similarly, holists
usually see the universe as a continuity, where each microcosm
reflects the macrocosm (the aporie of light as both a particle and wave may be a
useful analogy or model to understand this problem). However,
for this reason atomists, perhaps unknowingly, reiterate
Pythagorean theories which mathematics has long rejected.
Suppose, however, that mathematical representation is not an
arbitrary, pure, formal system (though that is in fact the
assumption of contemporary mathematics).
[*243]
Suppose, instead, that mathematical representation, rather
than being an arbitrary and purely formal system, is somehow a
reflection of material reality. Now, clearly irrational
numbers such as radical two exist, the ratio between a
hypotenuse and one of the equilateral legs of a right
equilateral triangle is, in fact, radical two. However, the
decimal representation of this ratio is non-terminating and
non-repeating. This implies that the holist representation of
material reality is correct, and that the atomist
representation is incorrect, because, if a line segment could
be split into atoms, then ratios, such as radical two, could
be represented as whole numbers, or at least as whole
fractions. The holist theory appears to be more accurate here
because it permits a representation of a ratio of two wholes,
which, though paradoxical, clearly exists. In contrast, the
atomist representation of discrete digital numbers cannot
adequately describe this ratio. A similar analysis also holds
true for pi,
namely the ratio of a circumference of a circle and the radius
of a circle. There, however, the ratio is complicated by the
fact that a circumference is a curve. Therefore, the example
of radical two is easier to illustrate the limitations of
atomistic thinking.
If ideas are merely a reflection of material reality, and not
an abstract model divorced from material reality, then the
atomist model, that the universe can be divided into ultimate
discrete elements which cannot be further subdivided, and
which serve as the fundamental basis of analysis, is
incorrect. An ever-smaller point can always be imagined. This
is why geometry presumes that any line segment is made of an
infinite number of points. Atomists, in contrast, presume that
the process of division must end somewhere. But assuming the
opposite position, that the universe is a discontinuous whole,
presumably, as in integral calculus, the possibility of an
infinite series converging upon a limit. The presumption of
continuity, which, like radical two is paradoxical, is
consistent with holism, and leads to empirically verifiable,
and useful, conclusions. The presumption of discontinuity
leads to contradiction. Consequently, the holist position is
again better able to represent reality and is probably more
correct than the atomist position. This argument, of course,
relies on the materialist presumption that ideas reflect
material reality, and do not exist independently of material
reality. It also relies on the presumption - which, again, is
not the presumption of modern mathematics - that mathematics,
like any idea, is a reflection of material reality, and thus,
not a purely formal system.
Pointing out the mathematical deficiencies in atomism does not
say there is no place for analysis in scientific thought. It
is intended, rather, to temper the role that such analysis is
given in a comprehensive theory. Obviously, both continuity
and discontinuity have their place in mathematics. [*244] The fact that holism
can consistently integrate atomism as a special theory, and
maintain the presumptions of holism as a general theory,
explains why it is the more powerful theory, despite the risks
inherent either in complex theorization or normative
prescriptions. Those risks are inevitable in law.
How is this understanding of continuity at the theoretical
level pertinent? The contradiction between rights theories
("western" theories) and duties theories ("eastern" theories)
of human rights is only apparent. Both western and eastern
schools of thought are elements in a continuity, as both are
linked by the common element, humanity. As expressions of
degrees of continuity, these apparent opposites are, in fact,
reconcilable.
Looking at western thinkers, when exploring the thoughts of
Plato, he clearly postulates duties as primary in his
Republic. n169 To the extent that Aristotle acknowledges the idea
of "right" (and thus of "rights"), n170 he posits them as a consequence of human
rationality. n171 But Aristotle's conception of rights is balanced
by his understanding of the inherently social nature of
humans. For Aristotle, like Rousseau, n172 the state finds its origins in the family and it,
unlike its individual members, the state (an extended family)
is self sufficient. Because the state is self-sustaining, it
has priority over any one of its members. n173 Thus,
Aristotle's conception of rights, like Rousseau's, would
necessarily contextualize rights by the society in which they
are found. Indeed, it is only relatively late in western
thought that Locke presented the possibility of rights
divorced from society. Locke's labor theory of value permits
an a-social man, because property, according to Locke, is not
a social relation, but the consequence of individual labor n174 - which is
empirically defensible [*245] (as well as being the position of Karl Marx) n175 - unlike
the subjective theories of value offered by Rothbard n176 and Mises n177 or the
postmodernists. Admittedly, roots of theoretical atomism can
also be found in Hobbes, n178 and even Rousseau. n179 But it is only with Locke that the individual can
be divorced from society, because property is now a product,
not a relation. n180 However for Aristotle n181 and Rousseau n182 the autonomous, autarchic, and thus independent,
human of the social contract postulated by Hobbes n183 and Locke,
in any of the various shades of that theory, is simply
impossible. n184
[*246] Yet, though the social contract is not a
historical fact, and the state of nature n185 an
impossible fiction. Social contract theory appears to have
influenced realist state theory. This theory sees the state as
self-sufficient, but living in the state of nature as to other
states, n186 and, as such, having only one law, the law of the
strongest. This "vision" (nightmare seems more exact) is every
bit as unrealistic as the social contract theory, which
appears to have spawned it and, like social contract theory,
must be rejected for empirical reasons: it does not correspond
to material reality. Social contract theory and realist state
theory do not even have much heuristic utility, for the
presumptions of these theories are so contrary to fact that
they cannot provide even an approximate or simplified view of
how states are actually formed, or actually behave. n187
A credible argument can be made that, in
pursuing the autarchic individualist ideal of enlightenment,
western society sowed the seeds of its own deracination and
alienation, as Marx noted. n188 Still, while there are, certainly, real points of
divergence, even within western theories of rights, the fact
is both west and east see individual rights as a consequence
of rationality, and as implying, or even being grounded upon,
social duties i.e. as a consequence of a commonality and
personhood. Consequently, they can serve a key role in the
post-Westphalian world.
Turning from legal theory to legal practice, again, western
theory does not ignore duties. For example, the first part of
the state constitution of the Free Hansa State Bremen is
entitled "Fundamental rights and duties." n189 The East
German Constitution granted both a right and duty to work. n190 Again, in
the Swiss Federal Constitution, the duties are also [*247] underlined. n191 This is not
limited to the German-speaking world. The French constitution
also speaks of rights and duties as concomitant. n192
B. MORAL RELATIVISM n193 AND CULTURAL IMPERIALISM n194 VERSUS UNIVERSALISM
One attack on human rights argues they are not universal, n195 either
because no universal values exist (post-modernism) n196 or because
human rights represent western values n197 (cultural relativism). n198 Both these attacks are erroneous. n199
As in the question whether duties are a-priori a-rights, the
question whether human rights is a universal concept can be
posited in terms of a geographic schism between the
industrialised north and the developing [*248] south. n200 Very
different challenges to the universality of human rights arise
in each of these regions due to differing economic conditions.
However, neither challenge alone, or in combination, is
sufficiently strong to defeat the theory that there are
universally common characteristics of human nature, which in
turn, are the foundation of a similarly universal theory of
human rights, which, in turn, engenders a legally binding
practice of human rights.
These challenges are the result of cultural relativism in the
north, and accusations, or fears of accusations, of cultural
imperialism n201 by the south. n202 Not unsurprisingly, the moral relativists n203 are
essentially westerners. n204 But those who argue there is no moral knowledge
ignore the fact that the prototypic liberals, Aristotle and
Locke, do believe in objective moral knowledge. Neo-liberals
(i.e. ultra-capitalists) abuse the term "liberal."
Neo-liberals, such as Posner, n205 believe there are no moral values; there are only
market values. This is one of the splits between classical
liberalism and neo-liberalism. Thus post-modernists are
mistaken if they believe that moral relativism somehow
advances "left" or "classical" liberal agendas. Quite the
opposite, moral relativism, like "value neutrality,"
implicitly affirms the status quo.
The West seems to have a monopoly on moral
relativism because of economics. Westerners are products of
societies of such superabundance that they can afford the
luxury of entertaining ideas n206 such as "all truths [*249] are relative." n207 Of course, if truth were only relative, then no
objective truth could exist. That, however, creates a paradox.
A truth statement that no truth statements exist is itself a
truth statement. Relativist arguments, whether as to
epistemology, i.e. truth scepticism, or axiology, i.e. moral
relativism, can be seen either as the product of confused n208 reasoning,
n209
or as a product of a culture n210 so blinded by its own wealth that it cannot see
the starvation and death that are all too common in the third
world.
Because moral relativists often suffer n211 from having
never been confronted with genuine moral choices, let alone a
genuine moral dilemma, they threaten the very existence of the
rights that generated the abundance that they consume. One
might consider this, like most errors, to be a self-correcting
problem. However, due to the economic plight of the third
world, one might question whether self-correction is the best
correction in this case. Further, an accusation that the human
rights discourse of the west is cultural imperialism n212 is probably
not self-correcting. [*250] Because of colonialism, the third world's critique
of the first world's use of human rights as a tool of
imperialism may have some merit. Further, these two challenges
could be mutually reinforcing. Thus, a coherent defense of the
universality of human rights is crucial, if human rights are
to serve as a key feature in the post-Westphalian world.
The critique that human rights are merely cultural imperialism
is not entirely without merit. Given the west's history of
attempts at "civilising" n213 the third world - its justification for third
world labor exploitation - the wariness, n214 or
skepticisim, n215 of the third world intellectual toward the
conflation of western human rights with universal human rights
n216
and the charge that human rights are a merely a smokescreen
for imperialism is understandable. n217 However, despite historical and economic
distortion, a basic fact of humanity is true: all healthy
humans are rational and seek to enjoy the good life in
society. n218 Thus, there is a genuinely universal human
archetype. Moreover, that rationality is precisely the
foundation of fundamental rights. Humans have rights, as
rational beings and because structures of rights allow that
rationality to be deployed practically, not only in order to
survive, but also to attain the good life of peace, happiness
and social discourse. n219
Again, the supposed theoretical divergence of
rights discourse is largely illusory, in as much as it is a
consequence of economic conditions. Were Europe a victim of
Indian imperialism, and Africa overfed and underworked, Europe
would be expressing fears of cultural imperialism and [*251] India preaching some
variety of moral relativism. n220 Rights are, to a certain extent, defined by a
society's level of economic development. n221 Relatively
impoverished pre-industrial or nascent industrial states
simply cannot afford to impose affirmative claims posited by
second-generation rights. However, that does not change the
fact that the ultimate foundation and vector of rights is our
inherent value as rational social beings. n222
C. HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE RULE OF LAW? n223
Just as human rights can be seen as universal
in their conception and applicability, so also is the
foundation of human rights on the rule of law not at all
unique to white, Christian or western society. This raises the
question of the relationship between the rule of law and human
rights.
Human rights, as legal rules, cannot exist without a society
based on the rule of law. The rule of law is a logical
precondition to human rights. n224 However, though the rule of law is a necessary
precondition to human rights, it is not a sufficient
condition. n225 It is entirely possible to have a society founded
upon the rule of law, i.e. a formeller
Rechtstaat which does observe basic
principles of just laws (e.g. no crime without law, no
retroactive laws), yet which does not acknowledge, or respect,
substantive human rights, or even acknowledge the existence of
procedural rights.
Consequently, to understand human rights, we must also
understand that human rights are a possible, but not a
necessary, consequence of the rule of law. How, then, does a
society, which guarantees and achieves substantive human
rights, emerge from a conception of the rule of law as merely
formal procedures? n226 This question is not only interesting because
[*252]
the emergence of human right is not inevitable, it is also
relevant to the universality debate. If the rule of law is a
uniquely western n227 concept, and the rule of law is a necessary
precondition to human rights, then human rights would be a
uniquely western concept. In fact, that is not the case. Asian
societies and aboriginal societies also observed, and continue
to observe, the formal requirements of the rule of law, and,
in some cases, have also achieved the positive goals of
guaranteeing the substantive human rights necessary to obtain
the good life.
This is not to say that there are no unique contributions of
western thought to theories of the rule of law. Clearly,
separation of powers n228 and the right n229 to rebel n230 are western inputs to the stock of human
knowledge. However, neither of these is necessary to have a
state governed by laws. But, because there are many western
contributions to the theory of human rights, that concept will
never be able to escape from accusations of cultural
imperialism. There are, of course, very good reasons for such
an accusation. For example, labor exploitation in the colonial
world was justified in the name of the Christian n231 duty to
"civilise" "savages." However, the finalities which human
rights serve, namely to enable the human, as individual and
species, to survive, and not only to survive, but also to lead
the good life, explain why those accusations are [*253] ultimately only
partly correct. Human rights emerge from the miasma of
post-modern moral relativism n232 precisely where they assert the truly universal
aspects of humanity - namely rationality. All humans, not
merely rich white males, have an essential dignity and beauty
as humans because of the capacity to think. As a consequence
of rationality, humans also have the capacity to acquire and
alienate. However, the very rationality which permits us to
acquire, and alienate, is also the foundation of our essential
dignity, explaining why certain of our rights are inherently
inalienable. For an alienation of our rights - for example
food, shelter, and respect - destroys the human as human,
rendering one at best, dead, and at worst, an unthinking
animal. n233
While it could be argued (imprudently, for the
argument risks accusations of cultural arrogance) that the
rule of law is originally a western concept - for the
institutions of democratic self rule n234 under law were first developed in the west
(ignoring for the moment that Athens was a slave economy) -
the idea of the rule of law is, in fact, not uniquely, nor
inevitably, western. As recently as the Twentieth Century, the
west faced several challenges to the rule of law centering on
the question of genetic inequality in Germany, the United
States and South Africa. n235 Furthermore, several contemporary, non-western
societies clearly display all the aspects of the supposedly
western concept of the rule of law. However, although the rule
of law is a necessary, but not sufficient condition of human
rights, it is a necessary and sufficient condition of a market
economy. n236 Without guaranties of the finalities of
transaction, and without some social mobility, a complex
capitalist economy would be impossible. While capitalism did
originate in the west, it has since spread globally, proving
the rule of law is not a product of either race or the
Christian religion - and thus neither uniquely, nor
necessarily, western. [*254] Human rights, however, are a function of economic
development. This, then, is the explanation of how the rule of
law ultimately can lead to human rights: the rule of law
creates necessary pre-conditions for economic prosperity. n237 As the
economy develops, speaking of substantive rights in a
meaningful sense becomes possible. Human rights, thus, are
neither inevitably nor uniquely "western." They are economic
functions which appear to have first, or most clearly,
developed in the western world.
However, while economic development does make it possible to
speak of rights in a meaningful sense, theories that
international human rights law somehow resembles lex mercatoria confuse the
possible with the necessary. While possible that economic
development can permit the emergence of human rights, it is
not necessary. The correlation between economic development
and human rights is not causal. How, then, have human rights,
in fact, developed with economic progress?
IV. THE GENERATIONAL THEORY OF HUMAN RIGHTS
The growth of human rights, which has roughly paralleled
economic development, is usually n238 described as having evolved over time in three
successive waves, n239 from easily implemented n240 individual n241 negative claims, to freedom from the state, to
positive collective n242 claims, to entitlements to state resources. At
least one scholar has tried to draw an a-historical, but
philosophically interesting, parallel between first-generation
rights as expressions of liberty, second-generation rights as
expressions of equality, and third-generation rights as
expressions of solidarity. n243 Such a description is almost poetic in its
symmetry, and [*255] clearly, the Declaration des Droits de l'Homme of
1789 n244 did inspire the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (UDHR). n245 The analogy is just that, however, an analogy, no
more, no less.
The idea of a triumvirate of rights did not spring, like
Athena, fully formed from the mind of Zeus. n246 It appears
to be of rather recent origin. Louis Sohn traces the concept
of three generations of human rights to Karel Vasak of UNESCO,
whom Sohn quotes as the source of the term. n247 Sohn,
quoting Vasak, believes that each generation of rights
complements and completes the other. That, however, ignores
the tension between individual property rights and
collective-social rights. One can argue that the
second-generation rights guarantee the substantive social minima precisely to
preserve the first-generation property rights, namely by
maintaining social stability, obviating the need for
revolution. Be that as it may, Sohn points out that Vasak
linked the idea of generational rights to the motto of the
French revolution - liberte, egalite, fraternite. Nothing in
the writings of Montesquieu n248 or Rousseau, n249 or even Locke, n250 Hobbes, n251 or Kant, n252 support the theory that human rights would unfold
in successive generations. n253 It seems to be a neologism. n254 In fact,
the tripartite typology of human rights is a historical
observation ex post, not a theoretical framework ex ante. A better typology
might justify the generational split, not on the basis of
history or teleology, but rather on positive international
law. First-generation international human rights appear to be
a part of jus cogens. n255 Second-generation rights are [*256] also customary laws,
but may be derogated from. Third-generation rights are
aspirational goals. Each generation is binding, but to a
different degree and concerns different branches of human
rights law.
Contemporary rights discourse describes human rights as
divided into three categories. However, that description of
rights, and the study of rights, is only approximate. n256 It ignores
certain crosscurrents and tensions between those rights, and
also ignores other evolutionary developments which are not
generally identified in rights discourse. Our historical and
theoretical analysis of the theory of rights reveals the
apories in the theory in order to resolve them. In conclusion,
despite some problems, the idea of three generations of human
rights is, with qualifications, a workable, if sometimes only
approximate, description of positive law.
A. FIRST-GENERATION RIGHTS
The first wave of human rights in modernity is usually
identified with the period of Scottish enlightenment n257 and the age
of reason (the nineteenth century), expressed in the liberal
revolutions n258 in America, France, and Latin America. n259 Rights
asserted in these revolutions were essentially claims of the
individual against state interference and to self-government.
That is the first-generation rights (e.g., the freedom to
worship, to peaceably assemble) were negative restrictions on
state power. n260 First-generation rights also tend to be procedural
rights, n261 that is rules which [*257] determine the creation or application of
substantive claims to material goods. Another common
characteristic of the first generation of rights is that,
historically, the first generation of human rights tends to
see property rights as fundamental, individual and even
absolute. n262 Later generations see property as relative, and
socially conditioned. n263 First-generation rights can be summarised,
roughly, as negative civil and political rights - "freedoms
from" rather than "rights to."
However, describing first-generation rights as negative
protection from state interference is not entirely accurate.
The right to worship as one chooses, to write or speak one's
mind, n264 are not mere restrictions on state power - they
are also assertions of the individual's power. Most
restrictions of state power imply an exercise of individual
power and vice versa.
Rights discourse is inherently problematic
because of this dual nature of rights - every single person's
right implies another person's corresponding duty. Rights
discourse is inherently problematic because "rights" are
expressed as vague, or ambiguous, platitudes. Rights discourse
is also contested because the interest of the individual and
the collective are, at times, in conflict, and one, or the
other, must prevail and because of the classic duality n265 of
"substance" versus "procedure." However, though the usual
account of the historical development of human rights is not
perfectly accurate, and though human rights are inherently
problematic, that does not mean that there is no common
concept of an idea that humans have inherent rights. There is
even some agreement as to, at least, [*258] a common core of
universally recognized human rights, such as the right not to
be deprived arbitrarily of one's own life.
In sum, despite the historical and methodological limitations,
it is possible to roughly sketch human rights as having passed
through three historical stages. However, the usual
description must be nuanced, and qualified, because that
sketch is only roughly accurate. A correct understanding of
history will, in turn, permit us to develop a correct theory.
For theory must itself be a reflection of history, i.e. of
material reality, if it is to be accurate according to
materialist epistemology.
B. SECOND-GENERATION RIGHTS
The second generation of rights arose during the industrial
revolution and was contemporaneous with the political
revolutions n266 of circa 1848-1870. n267 Human rights were then seen, increasingly, as no
longer merely negative rights to freedom from state
interference, but rather as affirmative, substantive n268 social
claims to state resources. n269 Second-generation rights were seen as the
consequence of dialectical class struggle n270 and thus,
to some extent, as collective rights. n271 Second-generation rights discourse tends, unlike
first-generation rights analysis, to see property claims as
social and relative.
[*259]
On this point, there is some tension n272 between the first and second generation of rights.
For example, the social welfare and social insurance schemes n273 of
industrial states n274 and social democracies n275 are second-generation rights - but those rights
infringe on the property rights guaranteed by first-generation
rights. However, while that is the case, the second-generation
rights also appease the dispossessed and, as such, tend to
increase social stability. Thus, second-generation rights
function ultimately to maintain property rights.
Not only is there surface tension between the first and second
generation of rights on the issue of property rights, the
usual evolutionary generational understanding of human rights
is incomplete. Are the rights of women a first-generation
procedural right, a second-generation substantive right, or a
third-generation collective right? Historically, claims to
women's rights only began to be made around 1880, which would
place them in the second generation. But those claims were to
procedural rights, such as the right to vote, or freedoms from
state restrictions on employment and property ownership. So
theoretically, at least, the early women's rights were
first-generation rights - but historically they were only
recognized just after the rise of the second generation of
human rights circa 1880. Thus, proponents of the generational
theory should explicitly declare their description of three
generations of rights as either theoretical (the author's
position), or historical, in order to avoid misunderstanding
and to clarify the points where history and theory diverge.
This is not the only example of historical contradiction
within the idea of human rights. What about the rights of
non-whites? Emancipation of black persons occurred in the
mid-nineteenth century, circa 1860. n276 This was another claim to freedom from state power
- the right not to be property, the right to vote, the right
to speak. Racial inequality was de
facto, [*260] and sometimes de jure, well into the
twentieth century in the U.S., n277 and even (with resistance) into the 1980s in South
Africa. n278 The historical description of three generations of
human rights must thus acknowledge two major incongruencies:
the delay in recognizing womens' rights, and the denial, at
least until relatively recently, of the human rights of
non-whites.
These instances of historical inconsistencies demonstrate the
limits of the idea of a "first" wave of procedural negative
rights and a "second" generation substantive affirmative
claims. With these qualifications, the usual historical
account of the evolution of human rights can help us to
understand why the revolutions of 1776 n279 and 1789
wrought different changes than those of 1917 n280 and 1949.
These tools of understanding can be used to indicate whether
the discussion concerns the three-generations theory as an
abstract description, where it is roughly accurate (with
qualification), or as a historical description, where it is
only loosely accurate.
C. THIRD GENERATION OF RIGHTS
The third generation of human rights n281 arose in the post-war world. The recognition of
third-generation rights is sometimes linked to the recognition
of the limited international legal personality. n282
Third-generation rights are seen as essentially collective. n283 They seek
to dynamically n284 complement the rights of the first and second
generation. n285 That attempt, [*261] however, is somewhat doomed from inception,
because of the inherent tension between the
individual/propertarian basis of first-generation rights and
the collective/social basis of second-generation rights.
Despite that fact, third-generation rights are said to include
the right to peace, n286 the right to security, n287 the right to democracy, and the right to
environmentally sustainable, n288 economic development. n289
Is there anything in the third-generation
rights making them inherently collective? If so, does that
inherent factor mean that individuals should not have a cause
of action? And, if individuals have a claim for
third-generation rights, is not that claim substantive? It is
this author's opinion that, while these rights are necessarily
collective - peace, democracy, and development are not
individual phenomena - the enforcement of these rights could
be placed in the hands of individuals, and linked to
substantive material goods. In fact, however, the positive
force of third-generation collective rights is contestable,
particularly since the fall of the Soviet system.
Third-generation rights are usually seen as hortatory goals
which guide and direct the development of the law.
Because there is some tension between first and second
generation of rights and a lack of dialogue between
third-generation rights and earlier conceptions of rights, n290 and because
of historical inexactitude, the usual typology of the three
generations of human rights is inaccurate, but not so
inaccurate that it must be rejected. Instead, the theory must,
like most theories, be qualified and adapted to conform to
reality. It is only where reality so fails to conform to a
model's descriptions and predictions, that legal science, like
any other science, must reject the old model and formulate a
new one. That is not the case of the historical account of the
[*262]
evolution of human rights through three stages. However, the
Westphalian theory of the state as absolute hermetic sovereign
no longer corresponds to material reality. Modifying that
model is probably impossible due to fundamental changes in
technology. Further, even if the theory could be modified,
modification may actually be undesirable if the Westphalian
model of the state led the world to two global wars.
The traditional analysis above, that sees human rights as
evolving in three successive waves, is only partially
complete. It is true, very roughly, that conceptions of human
rights have evolved from individual rights to collective
claims. It is also true, theoretically, that the rights of the
individual can be distinguished from freedoms from state
interference and rights to state resources. However, the
three-generation analysis ignores certain crosscurrents and
tensions between those rights and other evolutionary
developments not generally identified in rights discourse. As
such, it can only be used, with these qualifications, as a
tool to describe contemporary reality.
1. Individual and Collective Rights
The typical description of human rights is somewhat
problematic, and requires a shift of focus for better
understanding. The generational perspective focuses on the
content of the right, i.e. the character of the right.
However, it ignores who holds the right. Instead of asking:
"What right is held?" ask: "Who holds the right?" A different
view emerges when the question is "who holds the right?"
Having this different view is important because future rights
discourse will probably be characterized by a struggle between
western/universalist market rights (e.g., the WTO) and local,
collective, and possibly, fundamentalist conceptions of
collective rights. n291
Just as the contents of rights have evolved
with historical development, conceptions of who is entitled to
claim a right have also evolved. The conception of who is
entitled to claim a right has evolved from an understanding of
the holder of legal rights, as the individual, white, male,
adult citizen, to the holder of rights as including
non-whites, n292 women, and ultimately, non-citizens, children, n293 and
finally, collectives. This [*263] progress in the ability to hold a right is
basically ignored in the traditional generational view, which
focuses on what right is held, rather than on who holds the
right. This must be pointed out, however, in order to escape
from the hierarchical, and patriarchical, n294 origins of
human rights seen in Aristotle's thought, n295 leading to
unjust inequalities. n296
The idea of women's rights, and rights against
racial discrimination, do not harmonize well with the
generational perspective of rights. Neither women's rights,
nor the rights of non-white persons, are claims to
entitlement, but both women and non-whites were ignored by the
individualist first-generation rights theory. Perhaps, this is
because these rights, though enjoyed by individuals, are
derived from collectives - and first-generation rights are
essentially individualistic. In any event, women were
emancipated relatively late in history - in many cases only in
the last century, and in some cases, women are not
emancipated, most obviously in the Islamic world, n297 but
elsewhere as well. Islamic scholars n298 would point out that the right of a woman to seek
divorce was first recognized by Islam, as was racial equality.
Islamic feminists would also argue that human rights include
the right to be treated with dignity and respect, and dress
codes enforce that respect, and, further, equality of rights
does not mean equal roles. This author views the historical
argument as more persuasive. Islam clearly assigns specific
roles based on gender. However, the "liberation" of women in
the west should be questioned, as this "liberation" serves the
interests of consumerism and capitalism. In the west women are
free to be commoditized. Women in the west may well have
traded the kitchen for the office, yet they still are expected
to maintain the kitchen. n299
[*264] One must also recognize that apartheid was the
norm, at least until the 1950s n300 - well after the beginning of the
second-generational social rights to substantive goods. It is
also worth noting that the rights of sexual dissidents, such
as homosexuals, n301 transvestites, and transgendered persons remain
essentially ignored throughout the world. n302 Some
group's rights remain unprotected.
Because the usual generational perspective focuses on the
content of the right, rather than who holds the right, it
ignores the fact that rights discourse is either a reflection
of, or reflected in, political theory. But if the second and
third generations of rights are to be implemented, they
require an interventionist government - exactly the type of
government that first-generation rights sought to protect
against, even avoid. Though this contradiction is implicit in
the generational perspective on rights, it is generally not
explicitly stated. Negative "freedoms from" are obviously
incompatible with unlimited government. However, positive
"claims to" are often incompatible with the idea of limited
government. So, the tension between different generations of
rights also reflects a contradiction between forms of
government, which in turn depend on economic development. This
author posits the substantive content of rights can only be
understood within the economic context in which they are
deployed.
2. Property Rights
Another tension between first and second generation of rights,
often ignored by the usual generational perspective, concerns
property rights. While property rights played a central
theoretical role in first-generation rights discourse, as both
the means and end of the good life, n303 and though, at least since the fall of the Soviet
Union, the practical importance of property rights has
increased, their theoretical role has decreased. Today, it is
nearly universally admitted that reasonable restrictions on
property rights are permissible. n304 In terms of economic development there is no
reason for it. Perhaps, the field of human rights is dominated
by altruists, just as the field of commercial law is dominated
by practical businesslike persons? If there is legal
interpretative flexibility [*265] in the future resolution of the dialectic between
rights as economic, negative limitations on government versus rights as positive
expressions of local and indigenous sovereignty, it may be
found here.
Theoretically, the first generation of human rights was shaped
by liberalism, exemplified in the writings of Rousseau, n305 Locke, n306 and Kant, n307 though
rooted much more deeply in the thought of Aristotle. n308 The second
and third generations of rights were in contrast influenced by
Marx, n309 Engels, n310 Lenin, n311 and Mao. n312 This raises an implicit question: what is the
future of rights discourse now that the Soviet Union has
collapsed?
Many theorists, particularly American theorists, regard the
end of the U.S. S.R. as resulting in a net gain for human
rights. n313 This is, however, not exactly the case. First,
Marxist human rights theory assigns survival rights, such as
food and shelter, a higher value than property rights or the
right to worship. So, at least from that perspective, gaining
the right to worship freely and losing the right to a job
would be seen as a net loss. Furthermore, the economic
situation in Russia and the C.I.S. clearly has deteriorated
severely in the last 10 years n314 with a resulting increase in [*266] crime and decline in
human rights. n315 Similar regression has also occurred in South
Africa. Formally, human rights are better protected there
because of the legal equality, at least in theory, of blacks
and whites. However, formal equality is not the same as
substantive equality. Formal improvement in post-Apartheid
South Africa is belied, just as in Russia, n316 by the rise
in crime. n317 The situations in Myanmar, Yugoslavia, n318 and
Nigeria, n319 and Chechnya also belie the idea that, with the
end of Soviet imperialism, human rights have improved -
although perhaps a net human rights improvement can be seen,
however, in South America. What conclusions can be drawn from
these facts?
V. CONCLUSIONS
In this author's opinion, rights can only be understood in
their economic context because rights are ultimately claims to
material goods, or determine procedures by which material
goods are assigned. Rights can only be scientifically
understood when seen as arising out of material conditions
because science requires empirical verification of its
propositions. The fact that the conceptualisation of rights
has evolved with economic progress corroborative evidence of
the theory that rights can only be understood from a
materialist perspective.
As to the future, the resurgence of property n320 and market
rights such as capital mobility n321 and the free movement of labor and goods in the
post-Soviet world n322 may be merely a temporary trend. A trend that will
continue [*267] only until the third world objections to
capitalism reorganize, possibly centered around local cultural
icons, such as religious fundamentalism, e.g. Islamic
nationalism, n323 liberation theology, n324 or some other mix of ancient and modern local
resistance to a global economic order. n325 On the
other hand, it is also possible that the rise of market rights
since 1989 n326 could be signalling the return to an understanding
of rights in the first-generational sense, mere limits on the
state's power, or right to constrain the market ("freedoms
from"), rather than positive claims to substantive resources
("rights to").
Whether the future of rights will continue to follow market
trends, or reject the market as ultimate judge of right, will
depend on whether the third world industrializes and escapes
the grip of poverty. If it does, then a conception of rights
as reflections of, or even springing from, markets and which,
in either case, operate to limit government, will permit the
west to escape the charge of cultural imperialism or moral
relativism, and may dominate the discourse of rights for the
next few decades. Alternatively, if the third world spirals
further into debt and recessions, as seems to be the case
contemporarily in Argentina n327 and Venezuela, n328 then we may consider the possibility either of a
rejection in toto of human rights discourse or, more likely, the
formulation of cultural particularisms and an exceptionalist
view of rights such as indicated above. The author considers
the second the more likely outcome, but both are in fact,
possible.
The usual tri-partite generational perspective on human rights
is only partially complete. This is because that
classification ignores both the economic foundation n329 of human
rights, and their social expansion to cover not only white,
male, adult citizens, but also women, persons of [*268] color, and even
children. The classical typology is incomplete, but does help
us understand rights discourse, although only partially. We
have tried to expand briefly upon that theory, since it is
roughly accurate historically speaking, and since science
contents itself with improving existing theories and only
rejects a previous theory when a new theory can better explain
observed phenomena.
Legal Topics:
For related research and practice materials,
see the following legal topics:
Civil ProcedurePartiesInterventionRight to InterveneCivil
Rights LawGeneral OverviewInternational LawSovereign States
& IndividualsHuman RightsGeneral Overview
FOOTNOTES:
n1 The "shift in sovereignty accompanying globalisation has meant that non-state actors are more involved than ever in issues relating to human rights." Dinah Shelton, Protecting Human Rights In A Globalized World, 25 B.C. INT'L. COMP. L. REV. 273, 273 (2002) available at: http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:25129/bc_org/avp/law/lwsch/journals/bciclr/25_2/06_TXT.htm
n2 Individuals and non-state actors in the Westphalian system were considered mere "objects" of international law. ANTONIO CASSESE, HUMAN RIGHTS IN A CHANGING WORLD, 14 (Polity Press 1990).
n3 International Human Rights protects individuals against state action and even against private action. THEODOR MERON, HUMAN RIGHTS AND HUMANITARIAN NORMS AS CUSTOMARY LAW, 98 (Oxford: Clarendon 1989).
n4 International Human Rights law assigns rights and even duties to individuals. Id. at 101.
n5 Louis B. Sohn, The New International Law: Protection Of The Rights Of Individuals Rather Than States, 32 AM. U. L. REV. 1 (1982).
n6 ANTONIO CASSESE, supra note 2, at 15 (arguing that the second world war inaugurated a radical reconceptualization of international law).
n7 Robert D. Sloane, The Changing Face Of Recognition In International Law: A Case Study Of Tibet, 16 EMORY INT'L L. REV. 107, 144 (2002) (human rights documents founded sprang from the ruins of the Second World War).
n8 For a discussion of contemporary issues in crimes against humanity see: Simon Chesterman, An Altogether Different Order: Defining The Elements Of Crimes Against Humanity, 10 DUKE J. OF COMP. & INT'L L. 307 (2000) available at: http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:12115/shell/cite.pl?10+Duke+J.+Comp.+&+Int'l+L.+307.
n9 Louis B. Sohn, supra note 5, at 11.
n10 Charter Of The International Military Tribunal August 8, 1945, art. 6, [hereinafter IMT] available at: http://library.nyu.edu/lawweb/avalon/imt/proc/imtconst.htm Nuremberg in German is Nurnberg.
n11 IMT art. 7.
n12 Paul Feuerbach, Lehrbuch des gemeinen in Deutschland gueltigen peinlichen Rechts (1st ed. 1801) cited in: The Trial of Adolf Eichmann, Defence Submission 2, available at: http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/e/eichmann-adolf/transcripts/Sessions/Defence-Submission-02-01.html
n13 Jeanne L. Bakker, The Defense Of Obedience To Superior Orders: The Metis Rea Requirement, 17 Am. J. Crim. L. 55, 57 (1989).
n14 Id. at 62.
n15 Id. at 58.
n16 IMT art. 8. This is perhaps the most counterintuitive problem posed by the Nuremberg principles: the duty of an individual to disobey the sovereign under international law is incongruent with the rationale of the Westphalian system. Once a duty was imposed on individuals to disobey the orders of the sovereign, the argument that only the sovereign should be the intermediary of the individual in the international arena becomes illogical. How can one be required at once to disobey the sovereign and expected to rely on that sovereign for protection internationally? By implication, Nuremberg ended the monopoly of the state as representative of the individual internationally.
n17 Alfred P. Rubin, Actio Popularis, Jus Cogens, and Offenses Erga Omnes, 35 N. ENG. LAW REV. 265, 267 (2001) available at: http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:13060/lawrev/Vol35/35-2/rubin.pdf.
n18 Nuremberg Trial Proceedings Vol. 19, One Hundred And Eighty-Seventh Day, Friday, 26 July 1946 available at: http://library.nyu.edu/lawweb/avalon/imt/proc/07-26-46.htm
n19 Declaration des droits de l'homme, art. 8.
n20 HOBBES, LEVIATHAN (1651), chs. XXVII-XXVIII.
n21 "Lex mala, lex nulla" - an evil law is no law at all. THOMAS AQUINAS, SUMMA THEOLOGICA, (2d Ed., 1920) citing Augustine "that which is not just seems to be no law at all" (De Lib. Arb. i, 5) available at: http://www.newadvent.org/summa/209502.htm
n22 For example, when Eichmann was tried for "crimes against the Jewish people," the trial court's judgement (not necessarily the appeal!) relies on Blackstone arguing that mala in se can be prohibited ex post, because they are violations of natural law and are attempts to make a question able distinction between ex post facto and retroactive laws. In contrast, the Appellate judgment relies on the positivist Kelsen. "There is no rule of general customary international law forbidding the enactment of norms with retrospective force, so called ex post facto law." HANS KELSEN, PEACE THROUGH LAW, 87 (1944). The judgement also relied on Stone, "[t]here is clearly no principle of international law embodying the maxim against retroactivity of criminal law." JULIUS STONE, LEGAL CONTROLS OF INTERNATIONAL CONFLICT, 369 (1959). The court even points out: "...it is hardly necessary to invoke natural law to condemn the mass slaughter of helpless human beings. Murder is generally taken to be a crime in positive international law." FRIEDMANN, LEGAL THEORY, 316 (Columbia University Press, 4th ed.). Despite these positivist references the Israeli supreme court still felt compelled to contradict its positivism and rely, finally, on: "universal moral values and humanitarian principles which are at the root of the systems of criminal law adopted by civilised nations." Israel v. Eichmann, Criminal Case No. 40/61 (district court) available at: http://www.nizkor.Org/hweb/people/e/eichmann-adolf/transcripts/Judgment/Judgment-001.html; Israel v. Eichmann (S. Ct.) available at: http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/e/eichmann-adolf/transcripts/Appeal/Appeal-Session-07-01.html
n23 James Popple, The Right to Protection from Retroactive Criminal Law, 13 CRIM. L. JNL. 4, 251-62 (1989); 2 AUSTRALASIAN LAW STUDENTS' ASSOC'N J., 5-18 (1989) available at: http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:17898/ James.Popple/publications/articles/retroactive/2.shtml
n25 HOBBES, LEVIATHAN, CH. XIV, para. 3. Hobbes' lex naturalis is the law of self-preservation, implicitly via the use of force if necessary.
n26 CICERO, THE REPUBLIC at III, XXII (Loeb Classical Library, 1950), available at: http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/cicero/repub.shtml (lat).
n27 THOMAS AQUINAS, SUMMA THEOLOGICA, SECUNDA SECUNDAE PARTIS ยง 57 (Right), available at: http://www.newadvent.Org/summa/3.htm
n28 See, Eric Allen Engle, Critical Legal Studies in America (2000) available at: http://www.gradnet.de/alt/pomo2.archives/pomo2.papers/engle00.htm
n29 The League of Nations had already condemned aerial bombardment of civilians: Protection of Civilian Populations Against Bombing From The Air In Case Of War, Unanimous resolution of the League of Nations Assembly, Sept. 30, 1938, available at: http://lessons.ctaponline.org/ murphy_s/Nuclear/Text%20Evidence/international_law_on_the_bombing.htm
n30 The use or threat to use nuclear weapons is probably a war crime and/or a crime against humanity. See, On the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, International Court of Justice, The Hague, 8 July 1996; Resolution On Nuclear Weapons United Nations, November 24, 1961, General Assembly Resolution 1653.
n31 See, e.g., Alfred P. Rubin, supra note 17, at 280. "[N]o such tribunal existed outside of various victors' tribunals (like the post-WWII allied tribunals at Nuremberg, Tokyo and elsewhere), which did not apply the same 'law' to the victors' leaders that they applied to the leaders of the vanquished state or forces."
n32 "Article 2(4) of the UN Charter comprehensively prohibits the use of force, thereby sur passing the 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact's prohibition of going to war as a political means." Jost Delbruck, A More Effective International Law Or A New "World Law"? - Some Aspects Of The Development Of International Law In A Changing International System, 68 IND. L.J. 705, 707-708 (1993).
n33 Charter of the United Nations, ch. VII, art. 41, available at: http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:11512/aboutun/charter/
n34 Jost Delbruck argues that in the post-cold war era the definition of "aggression" is becoming broader. See, Jost Delbruck, supra note 32, at 708.
n35 Humanitarian assistance appears undefined in international law. For attempts at definitions see, Noelle Quenivet, Humanitarian assistance: a right or a policy?, J. HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE (June, 2000), at: http://www.jha.ac/articles/a030.htm and also, Songiee Song, NGOs and UN System in Humanitarian Assistance in War Zones: Focusing on Somalia and Rwanda, (M.A. thesis, 2000) at: http://gias.snu.ac.kr/i/i-thesis/i-0008thesis/sisong.pdf. In the U.S., domestic law humanitarian assistance is defined (22 U.S.C. ยง 2296 (b)(2)) as "assistance to meet humanitarian needs, including needs for food, medicine, medical supplies and equipment, education, and clothing." Available at: http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:6858/casecode/uscodes/22/chapters/32/subchapters/i/parts/xii/sections/section_2296.html
n36 "Humanitarian intervention is the threat or use of force by a state, group of states, or inter national organisation primarily for the purpose of protecting the nationals of the target state from widespread deprivations of internationally recognized human rights." Tania Voon, Closing The Gap Between Legitimacy And Legality Of Humanitarian Intervention: Lessons From East Timor And Kosovo, 7 UCLA J. INT'L L. & FOREIGN AFF. 31, 34 (2002). Some historical precedents exist even prior to the world wars for the right of humanitarian intervention in order to protect human rights. See Louis B. Sohn, supra note 5, at 5.
n37 The extent of NGO's appears to be growing, and NGOs are even implicated in the question of whether states have a right of intervention to provide humanitarian assistance. See C. STAHN, NGO'S AND INTERNATIONAL PEACEKEEPING, 61 ZaORV 379 (2003).
n38 William C. Plouffe, Sovereignty In The "New World Order": The Once And Future Position Of The United States, A Merlinesque Task Of Quasi-Legal Definition, 4 Tulsa J. COMP. & INT'L L. 49, 54 (1996). Recognizing at least five bases for jurisdiction under international law "(1) the territorial principle, (2) the nationality principle, (3) the protective principle, (4) the passive personality principle, and (5) the universality principle."
n39 But see: D. Bowett, Jurisdiction: Changing Patterns of Authority over Activities and Re sources, in THE STRUCTURE AND PROCESS OF INTERNATIONAL LAW: ESSAYS IN LEGAL PHILOSOPHY DOCTRINE AND THEORY (R. Macdonald, D. Johnston eds., (1986)). Acknowledges the existence of universal jurisdiction under the passive and active personality principle and the protective principle (560-562), but argues that while universal jurisdiction exists in cases of piracy and air piracy, that (despite Eichmann and the 1949 Geneva Conventions!) universal jurisdiction does not, or should not, exist as to war crimes, terrorism, or apartheid (563-564).
n40 The philosophical problem of the ship of Theseus is not "which ship belongs to Theseus." Instead it is, "what do we mean by identity?" (or even, "what do we mean by posession?"). See, e.g., Theseus, (2003) at: http://www.angelfire.com/ga/Jaimeisms/tst.html
n41 ANTONIO CASSESE, supra note 2, at 22.
n42 Henry J. Steiner & Philip Alston, International Human Rights in Context: Law, Politics, Morals 69, 136 (Oxford Univ. Press, 2d ed., 2000).
n43 Philip Alston, Final report on enhancing the long-term effectiveness of the United Nations human rights treaty system, Geneva: UN, (1997).
n44 [European] Convention For The Protection Of Human Rights And Fundamental Freedoms, 213, available at: http://heiwww.unige.ch/humanrts/instree/E17euroco.html
n45 For example, the [Inter] American Convention on Human Rights, O.A.S. Treaty Series No. 36, 1144 U.N.T.S. 123, entered into force July 18, 1978, available at: http://heiwww.unige.ch/humanrts/oasinstr/zoas3con.htm
n46 Jose E. Alvarez, The New Treaty Makers, 25 B.C. INT'L & COMP. L. REV. 213, 216-217 (2002) (notes proliferation in treaties and that the proliferation of treaties is accompanied by the rise in international organizations).
n47 Id. at 217-218 (nearly half of all multilateral treaties developed by the U.N.).
n48 Elsa Stamatopoulou, The Development Of United Nations Mechanisms For The Protection And Promotion Of Human Rights, 55 WASH. & LEE L. REV. 687, 688-689 (1998). Describes the global U.N. convention system - CEDAW, CAT, ICCPR, CESCR, and CERD.
n49 Jose E. Alvarez, supra note 46, at 220 (describes formative processes of multilateral treaties).
n50 Caroline Dommen, The U.N. Human Rights Regime: Is It Effective? 91 AM. SOC'Y INT'L L. PROC. 460, 466 (1997). (Remarks By Anne F. Bayefsky).
n51 Id. at 462-463. (Remarks by Thomas Buergenthal, U.N. human rights system of web of treaties, meachanisms and instruments seeking to "ratchet-up" human rights).
n52 The fact that individuals have rights and duties under international law is so clear that the more interesting question is whether such rights and duties can be implied in the treaty or must be expressly stated. See Jordan J. Paust, The Other Side Of Right: Private Duties Under Human Rights Law, 5 HARV. HUM. RTS. J. 51, 51-52 (1992). Given the state practice of recognizing rights and duties inhering in individuals, and the fact that treaties are to be construed liberally, the better argument is that it is possible to imply an individual right or duty in the terms of a treaty.
n53 Monica Pinto, Fragmentation Or Unification Among International Institutions: Human Rights Tribunals, 31 N.Y.U. J. INT'L L. & POL. 833, 833 (1999).
n57 Caroline Dommen, supra note 50, at 463. (Remarks by Thomas Buergenthal).
n58 U.S. practice in making extensive reservations to treaties is often criticised. See, e.g., Frederic L. Kirgis, Reservations to Treaties and United States Practice, ASIL INSIGHTS (May, 2003) at: http://www.asil.org/insights/insigh105.htm
n59 Nigel David White, The United Nations System: Conference, Contract Or Constitutional Order? 4 SING. J. INT'L & COMP. L. 281, 298 (2000).
n60 Claire Moore Dickerson, Human Rights: The Emerging Norm Of Corporate Social Responsibility, 76 Tul. L. Rev. 1431, 1449 (2002) (describes U.N. convention system as democratic global governance).
n61 Jose E. Alvarez, supra note 46, at 232-233 (describes world as evolving toward institutions and processes of global governance).
n62 Oona A. Hathaway, Do Human Rights Treaties Make A Difference?, 111 YALE L.J. 1935, 1957-1958 (2002) (describes processes of multilateral treaty making).
n63 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, Mar. 7, 1966, 660 U.N.T.S. 195; available at: http://www.tufts.edu/departments/fletcher/multi/texts/BH490.txt.
n65 Deborah E. Anker, Refugee Law, Gender, And The Human Rights Paradigm, 15 HARV. HUM. RTS. J. 133, 134 (2002).
n66 E.C.H.R. cited by an Indian court as evidence of a general principle of law: Hussainara Khatoon and Others v. Home Secretary, State of Bihar (1980), 1 SCC 81 (Indian Supreme Court). But see, Jean v. Nelson, 727 F.2d 957 (11th Cir. 1984), aff'd on other grounds 105 S. Ct. 2992 (1985). (Custom not found in conventions, resolutions); Tel Oren v. Libyan Arab Republic, 726 F. 2d 774 (DC Cir. 1984), cert. denied, 470 U.S. 1003 (1985). Cf. Fernandez Roque v. Smith, 622 F. Supp. 887 (ND Ga. 1985) modified sub nom. Fernandez-Roque v. Meese, 781 F.2d. 1450 (11th Cir. 1986). See also, Ishtyaq v. Nelson, 627 F. Supp. 13 (EDNY 1983) and Soroa-Gonzalez v. Civiletti, 515 F. Supp. 1049 (ND Ga. 1981); THEODOR MERON, supra note 3, at 126.
n67 Caroline Dommen, supra note 50, at 463. (Remarks by Thomas Buergenthal).
n68 See, e.g., Ram Chand Birdi v. Secretary of State for Home Affairs (1975) 61 INT'L L. REP. (UKCA) 250 (1981). Holding that courts must interpret national laws to be consistent with prior international laws because the national legislature is presumed to legislate with international obligations in mind.
n69 Jennifer A. Downs, A Healthy And Ecologically Balanced Environment: An Argument For A Third Generation Right, 3 DUKE J. COMP. & INT'L L. 351, 361 (1993). Acceptance of human rights into international law occurred via acceptance of UDHR as customary international law, and the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and of the Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights.
n70 E.g., art. 2 of the ICESCR links human rights protection to economic development and imposes a duty on states to augment the protection of human rights as the state's economic capacity increases.
Each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes to take steps, individually and through international assistance and co-operation, especially economic and technical, to the maximum of its available resources, with a view to achieving progressively the full realisation of the rights recognized in the present Covenant by all appropriate means, including particularly the adoption of legislative measures.
Available at: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/a_cescr.htm
n71 E.g., art. 12 of the ICESCR states, "1. [t]he States Parties to the present Covenant recog nise the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health." Thus, as technology improves, so does the obligation of the state. Available at: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/a_cescr.htm
n72 The obligation of states under the conventions is clear - not merely guaranteeing existing human rights but also affirmatively seeking to augment the level of protection. E.g., art. 13 of the ICESCR mandates the progressive introduction of free public higher education, not merely primary and secondary education, but also university and technical training. Available at: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/a_cescr.htm
n73 With exceptions, e.g., the Optional Protocol to CEDAW specifically prohibits reservations to the protocol. Art. 17, CEDAW Op. Prot. (G.A. res. 54/4, annex, 54 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 49) at 5, U.N. Doc. A/54/49 (Vol. I) (2000).
n74 See, e.g., International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Dec. 16, 1966, Optional Protocol, 999 U.N.T.S. 302.
n75 Jennifer A. Downs, supra note 69 (ICESCR and ICCCPR are binding law).
n76 Monica Pinto, supra note 53, at 836.
n77 Opinio juris is found in "verbal statements of governmental representatives to international organisations, in the content of [U.N.] resolutions, declarations, and other normative instruments adopted by such organisations, and in the consent of states to such instruments." THEODOR MERON, supra note 3, at 42, citing Nicaraguan (Nicaragua v. U.S.) merits, 1986 ICJ Rep. 14 (Judgement of 27 June).
n78 It must be remembered that customary law is binding upon states, even those states which regard treaties as non-self executing. Military and Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua (Nicar. v. U.S.) supra note 77.
n79 N.b.: customary international law is, unlike treaty law, regarded by the United States as self-executing. This also explains the vitality of customary international law even in this era of conventional systems such as the WTO and UN. Jordan J. Paust, Customary International Law And Human Rights Treaties Are Law Of The United States, 20 MICH. J. INT'L L. 301, 336 (1999).
n80 Opinio juris can arise out of U.N. General Assembly resolutions and Conventions. MERON, supra note 3, at 86.
n81 Thus the conventions are open to all U.N. member states, state parties to the statute of the ICJ, and any other state the General Assembly of the U.N. invites. E.g. ICCPR, art. 48 and ICESCR, art. 26, available at: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/a_cescr.htm
n82 There is, of course, plenty of hypocrisy in international relations. See, e.g., GABE VARGES, THE NEW INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ORDER LEGAL DEBATE, 1 (Peter Lang, Frankfurt 1983).
n83 The North Sea Continental Shelf Cases (FRG/Den.; FRG Neth.), 1969 ICJ Rep. 3, 44 (Judgment of 20 Feb.) stated that international law defines custom as a universal or near universal state practice coupled with a sense of legal obligation.
n84 But Bin Cheng, argues against the transformationist thesis that international custom can be constituted from international conventions. Bin Cheng, Custom: The Future of General State Practice in a Divided World, in THE STRUCTURE AND PROCESS OF INTERNATIONAL LAW: ESSAYS IN LEGAL PHILOSOPHY DOCTRINE AND THEORY 515 (R. Macdonald, D. Johnston eds., 1986).
n85 The right to democracy is also guaranteed in the U.N. convention system. Thus, e.g. art. 21, art 25 (a) ICCPR, art. 1 ICESCR, art. 4 ICESCR.
n86 Richard Klein, Cultural Relativism, Economic Development And International Human Rights In The Asian Context, 9 TOURO INT'L L. REV. 1, 2 (2001) (rise of human rights a conscious rejection of the former state system due to world wars).
n87 Some argue, erroneously, that opinio is logically the only element needed to constitute international custom. See Bin Cheng, supra note 84, at 530-531.
n88 Other elements than opinio juris and practice may be needed to form customary international law. In describing national customary law, the eminent Judge Blackstone noted that custom must: "(1) have been 'used so long, that the memory of man runneth not to the contrary;' (2) be continued without interruption; (3) be peaceably acquiesced (4) be reasonable; (5) be certain in its terms; (6) be accepted as compulsory, and (7) be consistent with other customs." Jo Lynn Slama, Opinio Juris In Customary International Law, 15 OKLA. CITY U. L. REV. 610 (1990).
n89 Ivan Poullaos, The Nature Of The Beast: Using The Alien Tort Claims Act To Combat International Human Rights Violations, 80 WASH. U. L.Q. 327, 333 (2002) (custom with opinio juris can ripen from mere practice into international customary law).
n90 Customary law can evolve "without express universal consent." Jo Lynn Slama, supra note 88, at 626.
n91 Custom may arise out of acquiescence by non-signatories, i.e. absence of objective objection. THEODOR MERON, supra note 3, at 89.
n92 The principle of the "persistent objector" in international law provides that a state is not bound to a rule of customary law where it has expressly and persistently objected to that rule. Jo Lynn Slama, supra note 88, at 627.
n93 Paul W. Kahn, American Hegemony And International Law Speaking Law To Power: Popular Sovereignty, Human Rights, And The New International Order, 1 CHI. J. INT'L L. 1, 12 (2000) (all modern states combine democracy and human rights).
n94 Daniel W. Drezner, On The Balance Between International Law And Democratic Sovereignty, 2 CHI. J. INT'L L. 321 (2001) (notes the Realpolitik nature of human rights law).
n95 For example, President James Carter made human rights a key plank in his foreign policy. Harlan Cleveland, Introduction: The Chain Reaction of Human Rights, in HUMAN DIGNITY: THE INTERNATIONALISATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IX (Alice Henkin ed., 1979).
n96 William C. Plouffe, supra note 38, at 79; also see Lois E. Fielding, Taking The Next Step In The Development Of New Human Rights: The Emerging Right Of Humanitarian Assistance To Restore Democracy, 5 DUKE J. COMP. & INT'L L. 329 (1995) (supporting humanitarian intervention in Haiti).
n97 See, e.g., Lisa L. Bhansali, New Customary Law: Taking Human Rights Seriously? 87 AM. SOC'Y INT'L L. PROC. 229, 240 (1993) which discusses a case where two rival warlords in the horn of Africa were intent on mutual destruction without regard to civilian casualties until the reality that as a consequence whoever would win would have no credibility in the outside world.
n98 For a concise compelling account of the use of human rights in statecraft verifying the customary nature of international human rights instruments including the UDHR and the ICCPR, see Louis B. Sohn, supra note 5, at 16.
n99 Thus, for example, U.S. foreign policy is unilateralist only when unilateralism serves U.S. interests.
n100 Even the U.S. recognizes that non-binding norms may evolve into custom. "[N]orms ... may ripen in the future into rules of customary international law." H.R. Rep. No. 102-367, at 4 (1991), reprinted in 1992 U.S. C.C.A.N. 84, 86.
n101 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Dec. 16, 1966, Optional Protocol, 999 U.N.T.S. 302.
n102 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Dec. 16, 1966 993 U.N.T.S. 3.
n103 "[T]he goal of international law-namely the achievement of a stable, just international order." Lucas W. Andrews, Sailing Around The Flat Earth: The International Tribunal For The Former Yugoslavia As A Failure Of Jurisprudential Theory, 11 EMORY INT'L L. REV. 471, 513 (1997).
n104 Gudmundur Alfredsson, The United Nations And Human Rights, 25 INT'L J. LEGAL INFO. 17, 21 (1997).
n105 J. Oloka-Onyango, Human Rights And Sustainable Development In Contemporary Africa: A New Dawn, Or Retreating Horizons? 6 BUFF. HUM. RTS. L. REV. 39, 43 (2000).
n106 The right to humanitarian intervention is attributed to Grotius and can be traced even further back to Suarez. "The 1579 Vindiciae Contra Tyrannos asserted that 'it is the right and duty of princes to interfere in behalf of neighbouring peoples who are oppressed on account of adherence to the true religion, or by any obvious tyranny,'" W. DUNNING, A HISTORY OF POLITICAL THEORIES FROM LUTHER TO MONTESQUIEU, 55 (1905).
n107 U.N. Charter arts. 1, 2, 55.
n108 U.S. v. Flick and Others, 9 WAR CRIMES REPORTS 1.
n109 U.S. v. Krupp and Others, 10 WAR CRIMES REPORTS 69.
n110 In re Estate of Ferdinand E. Marcos Human Rts. Iitia., 978 F.2d 493 (9th Cir. 1992).
n111 Kadic v. Karadzic (Part III: Justiciability) discusses in detail the requirements of the political question doctrine. Note that in Kadic no political question was found. Kadic v. Karadzic, 70 F.3d 232 (2d Cir. 1996), cert. denied 518 US 1005 (1996) available at: http://library.nyu.edu/lawweb/avalon/diana/karadzic/4298-12.html
n112 Interestingly, Eichmann is not the only case where a national was kidnapped in a foreign state by a prosecuting state but had no remedy because the remedy was held by the state where he was kidnapped. See Crim. 4 juin 1964, Argoud, JCP. 1964, II, 13806, rapport Comte (France: Cour de Cassation, Chambre Criminelle). See also, Brigette Belton Homrig, Abduction As An Alternative To Extradition-A Dangerous Method To Obtain Jurisdiction Over Criminal Defendants, 28 WAKE FOREST L. REV. 671 (1993). Manuel Noriega also complained of abduction in U.S. v. Noriega, 117 F.3d 1206, 1222 (11th Cir. 1997) - and just as unsuccessfully.
n113 Ulrich K. Preuss, The Force, Frailty, And Future Of Human Rights Under Globalisation, 1 THEORETICAL INQUIRIES L. 283, 304 (2000) (argues that the international community is in transition from nation state to global community).
n114 Jose E. Alvarez, supra note 46 at 216, available at: http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:25129/bc_org/avp/law/lwsch/joumals/bciclr/25_2/03_FMS.htm
n115 Some argue that the incoherence within human rights is inherent in the concept of human rights and not merely due to cultural splits. Ruti Teitel, Human Rights Genealogy, 66 FORDHAM L. REV. 301, 302 (1997) (arguing that the dualisms and ambiguity of international human rights law can be resolved via resort to history).
n116 John King Gamble, Teresa A. Bailey, Jared S. Hawk, Erin E. McCurdy, Human Rights Treaties: A Suggested Typology, An Historical Perspective, 7 BUFF. HUM. RTS. L. REV. 33, 34 (2001) (ineluctability of human rights).
n117 For a discussion of how human rights may be a tool of western imperialism see JOHAN GALTUNG, THE UNIVERSALITY OF HUMAN RIGHTS REVISITED: SOME LESS APPLAUDABLE CONSEQUENCES OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS TRADITION IN HUMAN RIGHTS IN PERSPECTIVE 152 (Asbjorn Eide, Bernt Hagtvet, eds. 1992) (arguing that human rights are not only a key to liberation but also a vector of state control).
n118 PETER FITZPATRICK, GLOBALISATION AND THE HUMANITY OF RIGHTS 2000 (1) Law, Social Justice and Global Development (LGD) at: http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:12145/global/issue/2000-1/fitzpatrick.html (arguing that globalism, like human rights, is a universalist ideology and, thus globalism permits human rights to escape the limits of the nation state).
n119 The universality debate has been presented as a "clash of civilisations" (describing the debates between the 'politics of universalism' and the 'politics of difference.' and 'identity politics' in international criminal law on the basis of group affiliation). Martha C. Nussbaum, In Defense Of Universal Value, 36 IDAHO L. REV. 379, 447 (2000).
n120 Brenda Cossman, Reform, Revolution, Or Retrenchment? International Human Rights In The Post-Cold War Era, 32 HARV. INT'L L.J. 339, 340 (1991) (rights are superior in the hierarchy of norms because they are universal in space and time).
n121 Jennifer Nedelsky, Communities Of Judgment And Human Rights, 1 THEORETICAL INQUIRES L. 245 (2000) (universality debate must be seen as a discourse between different communities).
n122 Makau Wa Mutua, The Ideology Of Human Rights, 36 VA. J. INT'L L. 589, 589-590 (1996) (human rights are ambiguous as to their scope, content, and philosophical bases).
n123 John King Gamble, et al., supra note 116, at 34 (ineluctability of human rights).
n124 ANTONIO CASSESE, supra note 2 at 51 (argues that universality is a myth).
n125 "The concept of the universality of human rights is based on the notion that: (a) there is a universal human nature; (b) this human nature is knowable; (c) it is knowable by reason; and (d) human nature is essentially different from other reality." Yash Gha, Universalism And Relativism: Human Rights As A Framework For Negotiating Interethnic Claims, 21 CARDOZO L. REV. 1094, 1096 (2000) available at: http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:12126/cardkev/v21n4/ghai.pdf.
n126 Another negative proof is the fact that while the contents of the rights are disputed their existence is not. Some even go so far as to venture to isolate a "common core" of human rights at the global level reflected from national law. See L. Amede Obiora, Reconstituted Consonants: The Reach of A "Common Core" Analogy In Human Rights, 21 HASTINGS INT'L & COMP. L. REV. 921, 955 (1998).
n127 ANTONIO CASSESE, supra note 2 at 64 (argues for the existence of a common core of human rights recognized globally).
n128 SAMUEL HUNTING, THE CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS AND THE REMAKING OF WORLD ORDER, 70 (Simon & Schuster 1996).
n129 E.g., Aristoteles, Nikomachische Ethik, Buch I, Kap. 2, 3, 5. Available at: http://www.uni-rostock.de/fakult/philfak/fkw/iph/strobach/hroseminare/mkethik/arist1.pdf.
n130 (*) (c. 350 b.c.) Book I, Part II, available at: http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:3306/Aristotle/politics.1.one.html
n131 It is also for this reason that human rights are inherently cosmopolitan and international. Robin West, Is The Rule Of Law Cosmopolitan?, 19 QLR 259 (2000).
n132 Elsa Stamatopoulou, supra note 48, at 692.
n133 Mahatma Gandhi, from Yervada Mandir (1930), excerpt at:$ http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:17899/Gandhi/economics.htm; H.R. Khanna, Rule of Law, 4 SCC JOUR. 7 (1977) available at: http://www.ebc-india.com/lawyer/articles/77v4a3.htm This principle has also been recognized in the case law. See, e.g., Medical Review Committee v. Lim, 8 MAN. R. 2d 407 (Q.B. 1981). (Canada, province of Manitoba).
n134 See GABE VARGES, supra note 82, at 5.
n135 See CLAUDE NIGOUL, MAURICE TORRELLI, LES MYSTIFICATIONS DU NOUVEL ORDRE INTERNATIONAL, 105 (Paris: PUF 1982).
n136 See GABE VARGES, supra note 82 at 17.
n137 Tesfatsion Medhanie, Lome: Can it help reverse Africa's marginalisation? 16 STAAT UND GESELLSCHAFT IN AFRIKA 397, 402 (1996).
n138 This view is not however without critique: See, e.g., Michael C. Davis, Constitutionalism And Political Culture: The Debate Over Human Rights And Asian Values, 11 HARV. HUM. RTS. J. 109, 147 (1998).
n139 ANTONIO CASSESE, supra note 2, at 53.
n140 There is no absence of Islamic scholarship in the west on this topic. Further the Islamic scholars do not question the idea of human rights as such but rather the western view of what those rights are. See, e.g., Ebrahim Moosa, The Dilemma Of Islamic Rights Schemes, 15 J.L. & RELIGION 185, 215 (2000); Ann Mayer, Universal Versus Islamic Human Rights: A Clash Of Cultures Or A Clash With A Construct?, 15 MICH. J. INT'L L. 307, 307 (1994); ABDULAZIZ OTHMAN ALTWAIJRI, HUMAN RIGHTS IN ISLAMIC TEACHINGS 4 (2000) available at: http://www.isesco.org.ma/pub/Eng/humanrights/page.htm
n141 Editorial, Human Rights: Knots and Webs, Hinduism Today (1996) available at: http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:17900/1996/6/1996-6-07.html
n142 Joseph Chan, Human Rights and Confucian Virtues, IV HARVARD ASIA QTLY. (2000) available at: http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:2662/ asiactr/haq/200003/0003a006.htm
n143 Damien Keown, Are There "Human Rights" in Buddhism? 2 J. BUDDHIST ETHICS (1995) available at: http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma/humanrights.html
n144 See, e.g., Mahatma Gandhi, Letter to the Director General of UNESCO, 25 May 1947, IV Human Rights Teaching 4 (1985).
n145 See, e.g., Alfred Verdross and Heribert Franz Koeck Natural Law: The Tradition of Universal Reason and Authority in THE STRUCTURE AND PROCESS OF INTERNATIONAL LAW: ESSAYS IN LEGAL PHILOSOPHY DOCTRINE AND THEORY 17 (R. Macdonald, D. Johnston eds., 1986).
n146 See, e.g., South West Africa Cases (Ethiopia v. South Africa; Liberia v. South Africa), ICJ Reports 1966 250, 297 (1966) (dissenting opinion of Judge Tanaka). But see DR. H. AGARWAL, IMPLEMENTATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS COVENANTS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO INDIA, 17-18 (1983) (arguing that human rights are universal because they arise out of the common equality of all persons).
n147 THOMAS AQUINAS, SUMMA THEOLOGICA, SECUNDA SECUNDAE PARTIS ยง 57 (Right) available at: http://www.newadvent.org/summa/3.htm
n148 Fr. Joseph M. de Torre, Human Rights, Natural Law, And Thomas Aquinas, VI Catholic Social Scientist Review (2001) available at: http://www.catholicsocialscientists.org/Article-deTorre-Human%20Rights.htm
n149 For a brief brilliant summary of the (only illusory) contradiction between natural law and positivism by the late Louis B. Sohn. See Louis B. Sohn, supra note 5, at 17.
n150 Nigel Purvis, Critical Legal Studies In Public International Law, 32 HARV. INT'L L.J. 94, 81-83, (1991) (describes "naturalist" "positivist" dichotomy in international law).
n151 Id. at 82-83 (describes the supposed decline of ius naturale theory).
n152 Unless the two schools of thought take a great deal of care to define their starting point, they find themselves talking about quite different things. Id. at 115.
n153 Louis B. Sohn, supra note 5, at 17.
n154 Id.
n155 Id.
n156 Alfred P. Rubin, Actio Popularis, Jus Cogens And Offenses Erga Omnes? 35 NEW ENG. L. REV. 265, 280, (2001).
n157 "[T]he condition of man (as hath been declared in the precedent chapter) is a condition of war of every one against every one, in which case every one is governed by his own reason, and there is nothing he can make use of that may not be a help unto him in preserving his life against his enemies." HOBBES, LEVIATHAN, Ch. XIV (1656). Hobbes also distinguishes between natural law and natural right.
n158 CICERO, THE REPUBLIC at III, XXII (Loeb Classical Library, 1950) available at: http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/cicero/repub.shtml (lat).
n159 THOMAS AQUINAS, supra note 27.
n160 See, e.g., HANS KELSEN, ALLGEMEINE STAATSLEHRE (1925).
n161 MAX WEBER, DER SINN DER WERTFREIHEIT" DER SOZIOLOGISCHEN UND OKONOMISCHEN WISSENSCHAFTEN (1917). In: Ders.: Gesammelte Aufsatze zur Wissenschaftslehre (Tubingen 1988).
n162 Nigel Purvis, supra note 150, at 81-83 (1991) (describes the naturalist riposte to positivism).
n163 Hobbes clearly describes a natural law theory - but his natural law is the law of the jungle, which like Rousseau, must be escaped by a social contract, i.e. a positive law:
The right of nature, which writers commonly call jus naturale, is the liberty each man hath to use his own power as he will himself for the preservation of his own nature; that is to say, of his own life; and consequently, of doing anything which, in his own judgement and reason, he shall conceive to be the aptest means thereunto.
HOBBES, LEVIATHAN, Ch. XIV (1660) available at: http://www.orst.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/hobbes/leviathan-contents.html The work of both Hobbes and Rousseau (and Locke for that matter) is, however, flawed because they presume an impossibility, namely the state of nature. Hobbes's theory of natural law - the law of the jungle, droit de plus fort, does however carefully distinguishes between natural law and natural right, and thus should be distinguished from other theories of natural law which usually do not make this distinction and thus confuse prescription and description.
n164 Perhaps the first and best-known example of a synergy arising, where a whole is greater than the sum of its parts, is Adam Smith's famous needle factory. Smith pointed out that a factory using laborers specialized in different tasks would be far more efficient at needle production than the same number of individuals working in isolation. ADAM SMITH, AN INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF THE WEALTH OF NATIONS, B.I, Ch.1, paragraph 1.1.3 (1776). Available at: http://www.econlib.org/library/Smith/smWN1.html
n165 See Purvis, supra note 150.
n166 For a good discussion of different methodologies see, Anne-Marie Slaughter, Steven R. Ratner, The Method Is The Message, 93 AM. J. INT'L L. 410 (1999).
n167 In fairness to Hobbes, we must note that his first natural law, the law of self preservation, by any means necessary, is only his point of departure. He goes on to develop other consequential rights which he considers just as "natural" as the right of self preservation. E.g., pacta sunt servanda (inter alia). HOBBES, LEVIATHAN, Ch. XV "Of Other Laws of Nature" (1660) available at: http://www.orst.edu/instruct/ph1302/texts/hobbes/leviathan-c.html#CHAPTERXV.
n168 To understand the theoretical distinctions between analog and digital conceptualisation see GOTTFRIED LEIBNIZ, A NEW METHOD FOR MAXIMA AND MINIMA AS WELL AS TANGENTS, WHICH IS IMPEDED NEITHER BY FRACTIONAL NOR BY IRRATIONAL QUANTITIES, AND A REMARKABLE TYPE OF CALCULUS FOR THIS (1684); ISAAC NEWTON, FLUXIONS (1666 - then unpublished working paper, later published), ISAAC NEWTON, ANALYSIS WITH INFINITE SERIES (1711).
n169 PLATO, REPUBLIC, Book IV, available at: http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:3306/Plato/republic5.iv.html
n170 Aristotle does speak of "civil rights" i.e. Burgerrechte; Aristotle, Athenian Constitution - Part 7, Sections 61 - 69 (translated by Sir Frederic G. Kenyon) available at: http://www.ekloges.com.cy/nqcontent.cfm?tt=article&a_id=1540.
n171 This can be seen by the example of the slave: Aristotle regards the slave as only capable of apprehending but not forming ideas. ARISTOTLE, POLITICS, Book I, Part 5, Para. 3 (c. 350 b.c.) available at: http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:3306/Aristotle/politics.1.one.html Consequently the slave has few rights. However the slave, like the drunkard, also has fewer duties, and for a similar reason - at least per Aristotle.
n172 "La plus ancienne de toutes les societes et la seule naturelle est celle de la famille. ... La famille est done si l'on veut le premier modele des societes politiques" Jean Jacques Rousseau, Contrat SOCIAL, Livre I, Ch. II (1762) available at: http://un2sg4.unige.ch/athena/rousseau/jjr_cont.html#L1/2.
n173 See (*), Book I, Part II (translated by Benjamin Jowett) available at: http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:3306/Aristotle/politics.1.one.html
n174 JOHN LOCKE, TWO TREATISES OF GOVERNMENT, Ch. V Sec. 28 (1698) available at http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:14801/early/locke/j-12-007.htm
n175 KARL MARX, MORCEAUX CHOISIS 263 (Nizan, P. et Duret, J. eds., Paris: Librairie Gallimard, 1934) (citing the Karl Marx work, SALAIRES, PRIX ET PROFIT). Marx and Locke also agree on the distinction between use value and exchange value: JOHN LOCKE, OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT, Book II, Ch. V ยง 46-51 eps. ยง 50; KARL MARX, CONTRIBUTION A LA CRITIQUE DE L'ECONOMIE POLITIQUE (Paris, Editions Sociales); KARL MARX CAPITALE 40 (Paris: Presses Universitaires Francais 1993).
n176 See e.g., MURRAY N. ROTHBARD, ED., THE LOGIC OF ACTION ONE 78-99 (Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd. 1997).
n177 See, e.g., LUDWIG MISES, MONEY, METHOD AND THE MARKET PROCESS, Ch. 3, "Epistemological Relativism in the Sciences of Human Action" (Richard M. Ebeling. ed., Amsterdam: Kluwer Academic Pubs. 1990) (Article first published in 1962) available at: http://www.mises.org/mmmp/mmmp3.asp.
n178 Hobbes' natural law (the law of the jungle) is clearly atomist.
The right of nature, which writers commonly call jus naturale, is the liberty each man hath to use his own power as he will himself for the preservation of his own nature; that is to say, of his own life; and consequently, of doing anything which, in his own judgement and reason, he shall conceive to be the aptest means thereunto.
According to Hobbes, in the state of nature, "right" is equivalent to "power," irrespective of society or family. HOBBES, LEVIATHAN, Ch. XIV, Of The First And Second Natural Laws, And Of Contracts (1660) available at: http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:9975/ rbear/hobbes/leviathan.html
n179 Only in so far as the pacte social constitutes society out of individuals, adhesion to the supposed contract. This, however, contradicts Rousseau's recognition that all states arise out of extended families. JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU, DU PACTE SOCIAL, chs. II, VI (1762).
n180 JOHN LOCKE, TWO TREATISES OF GOVERNMENT, Ch. V, ยง 28 (1764) available at: http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:14801/early/locke/j-12-007.htm This is incidentally the alienation of which Marx speaks - our alienation from the product of our labor; our commodification.
n181 "He who thus considers things in their first growth and origin, whether a state or anything else, will obtain the clearest view of them. In the first place there must be a union of those who cannot exist without each other; namely, of male and female... The family is the association established by nature for the supply of men's everyday wants... But when several families are united, and the association aims at something more than the supply of daily needs, the first society to be formed is the village...When several villages are united in a single complete community, large enough to be nearly or quite self-sufficing, the state comes into existence, originating in the bare needs of life, and continuing in existence for the sake of a good life." ARISTOTLE, POLITICS, supra note 173.
n182 <<La plus ancienne de toutes les societes et la seule naturelle est celle de la famille. >> JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU, DU CONTRAT SOCIAL OU PRINCIPES DU DROIT POLITIQUE, Livre I, Ch. II (1762) available at: http://un2sg4.unige.ch/athena/rousseau/jjr_cont.html
n183 "[T]he condition of man (as hath been declared in the precedent chapter) is a condition of war of every one against every one, in which case every one is governed by his own reason, and there is nothing he can make use of that may not be a help unto him in preserving his life against his enemies." HOBBES, LEVIATHAN, Ch. XIV, para. 4 (1660) available at: http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/hobbes/leviathan-contents.html (searchable).
n184 "The philosophers, who have examined the foundations of society, have, every one of them, perceived the necessity of tracing it back to a state of nature, but not one of them has ever arrived there." JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU (1712-1778), On the Inequality among Mankind (The Harvard Classics, 1909-14) available at: http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:3042/34/3/1002.html See also, Jiri Priban, Stealing the Natural Language: The Function of the Social Contract and Legality in the Light of Nietzche's Philosophy, 24 CARDOZO L.REV. 663, 664 (2003) available at: http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:12126/cardlrev/v24n2/Priban%20Final%20Version.pdf.
n185 See, e.g., JOHN LOCKE, TWO TREATISES OF GOVERNMENT, Ch. II (1764) available at: http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:14801/early/locke/j-12-004.htm>
n186 KENNETH N. WALTZ, MAN, THE STATE, AND WAR (Columbia Univ. Press 1954).
n187 In contrast, the simplified model of the economy provided by the "homo economicus" does, roughly, approximate how economic actors in fact behave. Like the states in IR realism, economic actors are posited as rational maximisers of their utility. However, the economic game is positive sum, whereas IR theory generally proposes that IR is a zero sum game. In economic theory, altruists can be safely ignored as they are a distinct minority. In contrast, realist IR assumptions do not in fact reduce the variables which influence state behavior in a meaningful way because the variables eliminated (economic factors) are more relevant than the ones retained (military factors!).
n188 KARL MARX, ECONOMIC AND PHILOSOPHIC MANUSCRIPTS OF 1844, "The Alienation of Labour" (1844) available at http://www.wsu.edu:8080/ dee/MODERN/ALIEN.htm
n189 Landesverfassung der Freien Hansestadt Bremen, Artikel 1 - 20, Erster Hauptteil: Grundrechte und Grundpflichten, available at: http://www.bremen.de/info/skp/lv/Vrfssngl.htm
n190 Verfassung der DDR, Artikel 24 available at: http://www.ddr-im-www.de/Gesetze/Verfassung.htm
(1) Jeder Burger der Deutschen
Demokratischen Republik hat das Recht auf Arbeit. Er hat das
Recht auf einen Arbeitsplatz und dessen freie Wahl
entsprechend den gesellschaftlichen Erfordernissen und der
personlichen Qualifikation. Er hat das Recht auf Lohn nach
Qualitat und Quantitat der Arbeit. Mann und Frau, Erwachsene
und Jugendliche haben das Recht auf gleichen Lohn bei gleicher
Arbeitsleistung.
(2) Gesellschaftlich nutzliche Tatigkeit ist eine ehrenvolle
Pflicht fur jeden arbeitsfahigen Burger. Das Recht auf Arbeit
und die Pflicht zur Arbeit bilden eine Einheit.
n191 Schweizerische Bundesverfassung, art. 6, Individuelle und gesellschaftliche Verantwortung:
Jede Person nimmt Verantwortung fur sich selber wahr und tragt nach ihren Kraften zur Bewaltigung der Aufgaben in Staat und Gesellschaft bei.
available at: http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:12044/ch/d/sr/101/a6.html
n192 Declaration Des Droits De L'homme Et Du Citoyen De 1789
Les Representants du Peuple Frangais, constitues en Assemblee Nationale, considerant que l'ignorance, l'oubli ou le mepris des Droits de l'Homme sont les seules causes des malheurs publics et de la corruption des Gouvernements, ont resolu d'exposer, dans une Declaration solennelle, les droits naturels, inalienables et sacres de l'Homme, afin que cette Declaration, constamment presente a tous les Membres du corps social, leur rappelle sans cesse leurs droits et leurs devoirs.
available at: http://www.assemblee-nat.fr/connaissance/constitution.asp.
n193 Guyora Binder, Cultural Relativism And Cultural Imperialism In Human Rights Law, 5 BUFF. HUM. RTS. L. REV. 211, 221 (1999) (describes the universalism/relativism debate).
n194 Makau Mutua, Savages, Victims, And Saviors: The Metaphor Of Human Rights 42 HARV. INT'L L.J. 201, 204 (2001) (points out the irony of brutalizing colonial powers pushing for the Nur emberg trials and adopting the UDHR).
n195 For a discussion of the contours (and limits) of the universality/relativism debate in an intercultural comparative context see Yash Ghai, Universalism and Relativism: Human Rights as a Framework for Negotiating Interethnic Claims, 21 CARDOZO L.R. 1095 (2000) available at: http://www.undp.org.fj/elections/reports/ghai.pdf.
n196 See, e.g., Zuhtu Arslan, Taking Rights Less Seriously: Postmodernism and Human Rights, 5 RES PUBLICA 195 available at: http://www.philosophy.ru/library/pdf/234617.pdf.
n197 Richard Klein, supra note 86, at 4 (UDHR rooted in western values).
n198 ANTONIO CASSESE, supra note 2, at 52; Sarah Joseph, A Rights Analysis Of The Covenant On Civil And Political Rights, 5 J. INT'L LEGAL STUD. 57, 74-75 (1999) (arguing that the distinction between rights and duties is artificial).
n199 "[T]he cultural relativist theories of the academy are tautological and overly deterministic because they fail to appreciate the roles of both human agency and institutions in the transformative processes of cultural discourse." Michael C. Davis, supra note 138, at 110.
n200 See, e.g. Dianne Otto, Rethinking The "Universality" Of Human Rights Law, 29 COLUM. HUM. RTS. L. REV. 1(1997).
n201 Makau Mutua, Savages, Victims, And Saviors, supra note 194, at 204-205 (argues that human rights is Eurocentric, though well-meaning, and unknowingly reiterates colonial paradigms).
n202 See, e.g., Jonathan C. Goltzman, Cultural Relativism or Cultural Intrusion? Female Ritual Slavery in Western Africa & the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: Ghana as a Case Study, 4 N.ENG. INT'L & COMP. L. ANN. 53, 66 (1998) available at: http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:13060/intljoumal/vol4indx.cfm.
n203 For a good explanation of the problems of moral relativism (which, however, fails to recognize the fact that in any formal system axioms are necessary to formal representation and necessarily tautological) see Michael J. Perry, Moral Knowledge, Moral Reasoning, Moral Relativism: A "Naturalist" Perspective, 20 GA. L. REV. 995, 1003-1009 (1986) (proposing a method for valid normative inference using practical reasoning i.e. phronesis but discussing although only obliquely Hume's position on normative inference).
n204 A cogent but extreme reply to moral relativism points out that for liberals like Rawls, Ackerman, and Dworkin there is no moral knowledge. Id. at 995. That view may go too far. Clearly, the prototypic liberals Aristotle and Locke do believe in objective moral knowledge. So, what Perry is identifying is actually the neo-liberal (i.e. ultra-capitalist) abuse of the idea of liberality.
n205 See, e.g., RICHARD POSNER, THE ECONOMICS OF JUSTICE, (Boston: Harvard 1981).
n206 The failure of the moral relativists to grasp reality can be shown by a crude reductio: genital mutilation. Who cares to argue for it? There is no absence of literature. See, e.g., Adam Karp, Genitorts In The Global Context: Female Genital Mutilation As Tort Under The Alien Tort Claims Act, The Torture Victim Protection Act, And The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, 18 WOMEN'S RTS. L. REP. 315 (1997); Sylvia Wynter "Genital Mutilation" Or "Symbolic Birth?" Female Circumcision, Lost Origins, And The Aculturalism Of Feminist/Western Thought, 47 CASE W. RES. L. REV. 501 (1997); L. Amede Obiora, Bridges And Barricades: Rethinking Polemics And Intransigence In The Campaign Against Female Circumcision, 47 CASE W. RES. L. REV. 275 (1997). A moral relativist cannot oppose genital mutilation (or any other act) since all cultures are (to the relativist) equally valid.
n207 Epistemologically, truth scepticism must be distinguished from post-modernist truth abnegationism. Truth scepticism with roots in Nietzsche merely challenges whether what we are told is "truth" is in fact "true." FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE, JENSEITS VON GUT UND BOSE, (1887) available at: http://www.gutenberg2000.de/nietzsch/jenseits/0htmldir.htm Truth abnegation denies the existence of truth.
n208 Much of the confusion lies in the belief that statements must be either true or false. Aristotle himself noted that some statements, such as prayers, have no truth value.
Every sentence has meaning, not as being the natural means by which a physical faculty is realized, but, as we have said, by convention. Yet every sentence is not a proposition; only such are propositions as have in them either truth or falsity. Thus a prayer is a sentence, but is neither true nor false.
ARISTOTLE, ON INTERPRETATION (c. 350 B.C.) (translated by E. M. Edghill) Section 1, Part IV, para. 2, available at: http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:3306/Aristotle/interpretation.1.1.html Also see Sanford Shieh, Undecidability, Epistemology, and Anti-Realist Intuitionism, 2 NORDIC J. PHILOSOPHICAL LOGIC 55, available at: http://www.hf.uio.no/filosofi/njpl/vol2no2/decidable/decidable.pdf.
n209 One root of the confusion is the recognition by Kurt Godel that the truth value of some propositions of formal logic cannot be determined by a formal system. KURT GODEL, ON FORMALLY UNDECIDABLE PROPOSITIONS OF PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA AND RELATED SYSTEMS, (1931) available at: http://nago.cs.colourado.edu/ hirzel/papers/canon00-goedel.pdf.
n210 The best attacks on the universality of human rights focus on the cultural flaws of the north and question its moral legitimacy. E.g., "The human rights movement is marked by a damning metaphor. The grand narrative of human rights contains a subtext that depicts an epochal contest pitting savages, on the one hand, against victims and saviors, on the other." Makau Mutua, supra note 194, at 201. But even the best attacks criticise not the idea of human rights as such, but rather the legitimacy of the north/west to claim to be the fountain of human rights.
n211 "According to the naturalist conception, moral knowledge is knowledge of how to live so as to flourish, to achieve well-being." Michael J. Perry, supra note 203, at 997. Those who lack moral knowledge literally suffer from their ignorance, as Aristotle notes.
n212 Surya P. Subedi, Are The Principles Of Human Rights "Western" Ideas? An Analysis Of The Claim Of The "Asian" Concept Of Human Rights From The Perspectives Of Hinduism, 30 CAL. W. INT'L L.J. 45 (1999) (arguing that the idea that human rights is the product of Western Christian civilisation is reiteration of selective nineteenth-century values).
n213 Literally: imposing the civil law. GABE S. VARGES, supra note 82.
n214 Surya P. Subedi, supra note 212, at 46. However once again that is not a dispute as to whether there are human rights but rather what is the content of those rights. As such, it is no argument against the universality of human rights.
n215 For example, Nestle sells powdered milk in the third world erroneously arguing that it will make babies more intelligent than mother's milk. Further powdered milk requires sterilised water - and the water in the third world is often impure. Worse, powdered milk is often diluted leading to malnutrition and even death from starvation. When Nestle was criticised for this in print, Nestle' sued for defamation, specifically for Verleumdung and uble Nachrede. Nestle's claim for uble Nachrede was upheld. ANTONIO CASSESE, supra note 2, at 138-139.
n216 "[N]ot all human rights principles have their roots in Western civilisation nor are all human rights principles necessarily mere Western principles." Surya P. Subedi, supra note 212, at 45.
n217 Martha Minow, Rights and Cultural Difference, in IDENTITIES, POLITICS AND RIGHTS 355 (Sarat and Kearns eds., 1995) (example of human rights used as tool of domination of First Nations in North America).
n218 See (*), Book I Part II (translated by Benjamin Jowett) (350 B.C.) available at: http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:3306/Aristotle/politics.Lone.html
n219 The good life is, of course, defined by Aristotle as the end of life in political society. Id.
n220 In fact, Indian discourses on human rights are well-developed and even represented within western legal scholarship. See, e.g., Prakash Shah, International Human Rights: A Perspective From India, 21 FORDHAM INT'L L.J. 24, 44 (1997).
n221 Yash Ghai, supra note 195 (citing to Chinese legal authority).
n222 Anita Ramasastry, Corporate Complicity: From Nuremberg To Rangoon An Examination Of Forced Labour Cases And Their Impact On The Liability Of Multinational Corporations, 20 BERKELEY J. INT'L L. 91, 153 (2002).
n223 Robin West, supra note 131 (equality the foundation of mutual respect).
n224 Report of the Joseph R. Crowley Program, One Country, Two Legal Systems?, 23 FORDHAM INT'L L.J. 1, 6 (1999).
n225 Similarly, there is also no necessary connection between democracy and the rule of law. Michel Rosenfeld, The Rule Of Law And The Legitimacy Of Constitutional Democracy, 14 S. CAL. L.REV. 1307, 1308 (2001).
n226 One possible answer is for realist reasons, i.e. Realpolitik considerations. The rule of law, like human rights, can be a tool in a state's diplomatic arsenal and serve its foreign policy goals. Jose Maravall, The Rule of Law as a Political Weapon, Working Paper 2001/160 (2001) available at: http://www.march.es/NUEVO/UM/CEACS/PUBLICACIONESAVORKING%20PAPERS/2001_160.pdf.
n227 One can of course question whether the United States are committed to the rule of law:
the United States has deployed military forces in Grenada, Libya, Nicaragua, Panama, and Yugoslavia without authorisation from the United Nations Security Council, as required by the U.N. Charter. The United States quit UNESCO, failed to pay its U.N. dues in a timely manner, withdrew from the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice, and refused to comply with the International Court's orders on at least three occasions... the United States has repeatedly executed foreign nationals without according them the basic right to consult with their consular representatives... the United States has failed to ratify the International Convenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the American Convention on Human Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines... the Bush administration rejected the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the Biological Weapons Protocol to enforce the 1972 Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons, which banned such weapons, and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Joel R. Paul, Holding Multi-National Corporations Responsible Under International Law, 24 HASTINGS INT'L & COMP. L. REV. 285, 287-288 (2001).
n228 Charles Montesquieu, De L'Esprit des Lois (1758), Livre XI, available at: http://www.uqac.uquebec.ca/zone30/Classiques_des_sciences_sociales/livres/montesquieu/montesquieu.html
n229 "[T]he American and French Revolutions... established the right of the people to rebel against tyranny.' Nancy P. Kelly, The Political Offense Exemption To Extradition: Protecting The Right Of Rebellion In An Era Of International Political Violence, 66 OR. L. REV. 405 (1987).
n230 Though Hobbes and Rousseau consider the social contract irrevocable, this is not Locke's position. JOHN LOCKE, TWO TREATISES OF GOVERNMENT, Ch. XIX ยง 22 (1764) available at http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:14801/early/locke/j-12-001.htm
n231 Makau Mutua, What is TWAIL? 94 ASIL PROCEEDINGS 1, 37 (2000).
n232 For good critiques of the flaws and confusion which inherent in post-modern thought due to an erroneous axiology and epistemology see Dennis W. Arrow, Pomobabble: Postmodern New-speak and Constitutional "Meaning" for the Uninitiated, 96 MICH. L. R. 461 (1997); Dennis Arrow, Spaceball (Or, Not Everything that's Left is Postmodern), 54 VAND. L. REV. 2381 available at: http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:17901/lawreview/vol546/arrow.pdf.
n233 Aristotle argues that man outside of political society is rendered beastlike.
The proof that the state is a creation of nature and prior to the individual is that the individual, when isolated, is not self-sufficing; and therefore he is like a part in relation to the whole. But he who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god: he is no part of a state.
(*), Book I, Part II (ca. 350 b.c.) available at: http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:3306/Aristotle/politics.1.one.html
n234 The universality debate also exists in democratic theory. Surya P. Subedi, supra note 212, at 47.
n235 William G. Ross, Attacks On The Warren Court By State Officials: A Case Study Of Why Court-Curbing Movements Fail, 50 BUFF. L. REV. 483, 508 (2002).
n236 Richard L. Abel, Capitalism and the Rule of Law: Precondition or Contradiction? 28 LAW & SOC'Y REV. 971, 987 (journal renamed: was 15 LAW & SOCIAL INQUIRY 685) (1990).
n237 "Human Rights ensure international security and prosperity" speech by the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Geneva, 17 April 2002, available at: http://www.britischebotschaft.de/en/news/items/020418.htm
n238 But see: Dianne Otto, supra note 200, at 5-6. (Describing human rights as having developed in four generations - Otto's view is distinctly the minority view; Otto also describes the usual typology of first generation and second generation rights but subdivides third generation rights based on whether they arose out of the Soviet Bloc or Non-Aligned Movement.)
n239 Claire Moore Dickerson, supra note 60, at 1441-1442 (describes and refines the three-generation theory of human rights).
n240 John King Gamble, et al., supra note 116, at 36 (argues that first-generation rights are able to be easily and immediately implemented).
n241 But see: Claire Moore Dickerson, supra note 60, at 1444. Dickerson's ignores the individualist propertarian presumptions of first generation rights practice and claims of rights to collective bargaining which were raised only with the second generation of rights.
n242 John King Gamble, et al., supra note 116, at 36.
n243 "The first generation of political and civil rights, embodied in the Universal Declaration and the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, are freedoms from state intrusion: liberte. The second generation furthers realisation of the first generation by guaranteeing minimum standards, demandable upon the state, of education and health, a liveable wage, decent working conditions, and social insurance for all persons: egalite. Finally, the third generation consists of rights which may be invoked against and demanded of the state. These rights require all the organs of society-individual, state, regional, and international-to cooperate in order for the rights to be realised: fraternite." Jennifer A. Downs, supra note 69, at 364. I have found no evidence for this assertion in the writings of Diderot, Montesqieu or Rousseau.
n244 Declaration des droits de I'Homme et du citoyen, 26 aout 1789 available at: http://www.justice.gouv.fr/textfond/ddhc.htm
n245 Die Allgemeine Erklarung der Menschenrechte, Resolution 217 A (III) vom 10.12.1948, available at: http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/lang/ger.htm
n247 Louis B. Sohn, supra note 5, at 61-62.
n248 Charles Montesquieu, L'Esprit des Lois (1758) available at:http://www.uqac.uquebec.ca/zone30/Classiques_des_sciences_sociales/livres/montesquieu/de_esprit_des_lois/de_esprit_des_lois_tdm.html
n249 JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU, supra note 172.
n250 JOHN LOCKE, supra note 174.
n251 HOBBES, supra note 20.
n252 IMMANUEL KANT, ZUM EWIGEN FREDEN (1795) available at: http://www.mda.de/homes/matban/de/kant-zef.html; IMMANUEL KANT, BEANTWORTUNG DER FRAGE: WAS IST AUFKLARUNG? (1784) available at: http://www.gutenberg2000.de/kant/aufklae/aufkl001.htm
n253 I am, of course, open to contradiction and do not claim to have read the entire canon of every western enlightenment thinker. However, it seems unlikely that the enlightenment thinkers foresaw with such clarity the future development of human rights.
n254 Louis B. Sohn, supra note 5, at 61-62.
n255 Id. at 32.
n256 Jennifer A. Downs, supra note 69, at 351 (argues that the generational theory is metaphoric not historic).
n257 R. Randall Kelso, A Post-Conference Reflection On Federalism, Toleration, And Human Rights, 40 S. TEX. L. REV. 811, 826-827 (two historical strands to moral reasoning about universal human rights: the Enlightenment natural law tradition, and the classic and Christian natural law tradition).
n258 Id.; see also, Louis B. Sohn, supra note 5, at 33. Kelso seems to ignore contemporary theorists of ius naturale such as Finnis.
n259 Because of this bourgeois influence on the idea of human rights some are sceptical as to whether human rights truly "liberates." This scepticism is understandable. Indeed as such critics of human rights note, rights are not merely a protection of the weak and innocent against the strong and powerful, they are also a vector of state power, and a subtle one at that. See, e.g., Wendy Brown, Rights and Identity in Late Modernity, in IDENTITIES, POLITICS AND RIGHTS 89 (Sarat and Kearns eds., 1995).
n260 U.S. CONST., amend. I (freedom of speech, worship), IV (no unlawful search or seizure), inter alia available at: http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:4711/constitution/constitution.billofrights.htm
n261 See e.g., U.S. CONST., amend. V, available at: http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:4711/constitution/constitution.billofrights.htm and Declaration des droits de I'Homme et du Citoyen, arts. 7-9.
<< Article 7 - Nul homme ne peut etre accuse, arrete ou detenu que dans les cas determines par la loi et selon les formes qu'elle a prescrites. Ceux qui sollicitent, expedient, executent ou font executer des ordres arbitraires doivent etre punis; mais tout citoyen appele ou saisi en vertu de la loi doit obeir a l'instant; il se rend coupable par la resistance. Article 8 - La loi ne doit etablir que des peines strictement et evidemment necessaires, et nul ne peut etre puni qu'en vertu d'une loi etablie et promulguee anterieurement au delit, et legalement appliquee. Article 9 - Tout homme etant presume innocent jusqu'a ce qu'il ait ete declare coupable, s'il est juge indispensable de l'arreter, toute rigueur qui ne serait pas necessaire pour s'assurer de sa personne doit etre severement reprimee par la loi.
Available at: http://www.justice.gouv.fr/textfond/ddhc.htm
n262 Declaration des Droits de I'Homme et du Citoyen, art. 2, 17, available at: http://www.justice.gouv.fr/textfond/ddhc.htm; U.S. Const., amend. V, available at: http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:4711/constitution/constitution.billofrights.htmlttamendmentiii.
n263 E.g. "not every destruction or injury to property by governmental action has been held to be a 'taking' in the constitutional sense." Armstrong v. United States, 364 U.S. 40, 48 (1960).
n264 E.g., Declaration des Droits de I'Homme et du
Citoyen, art. 10 & 11:
Article 10 - Nul ne doit etre inquiete pour ses opinions,
memes religieuses, pourvu que leur manifestation ne trouble
pas l'ordre public etabli par la loi.
Article 11 - La libre communication des pensees et des
opinions est un des droits les plus precieux de l'homme; tout
citoyen peut donc parler, ecrire, imprimer librement, sauf a
repondre de l'abus de cette liberte dans les cas determines
par la loi. available at: http://www.justice.gouv.fr/textfond/ddhc.htm
Clearly, these are restrictions of the state's power - but
they are often also affirmations of the individual's power.
n265 Paul W. Kahn, American Hegemony And International Law Speaking Law To Power: Popular Sovereignty, Human Rights, And The New International Order, 1 CHI. J. INT'L L. 1, 5 (2000) (points out the collapse of dualism and that sovereignty rather than a solution to the problems of peace and justice is a problem).
n266 Louis B. Sohn, supra note 5, at 33.
n267 Claire Moore Dickerson, supra note 60, at 1444-1445 (describes three-generation rights theory).
n268 E.g., Verfassung der DDR, Artikel 25 (1) Jeder Burger der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik hat das gleiche Recht auf Bildung. Die Bildungsstatten stehen jedermann offen. Das einheitliche sozialistische Bildungssystem gewahrleistet jedem Burger eine kontinuierliche sozial istische Erziehung. Bildung und Weiterbildung." Available at: http://www.ddr-im-www.de/Gesetze/Verfassung.htm and at: http://www.documentarchiv.de/ddr/verfddr.html
n269 E.g. Landesverfassung der Freien Hansestadt Bremen Artikel 14: Jeder Bewohner der Freien Hansestadt Bremen hat Anspruch auf eine angemessene Wohnung. Es ist Aufgabe des Staates und der Gemeinden, die Verwirklichung dieses Anspruches zu fordern." Available at: http://www.bremen.de/info/skp/lv/Vrfssngl.htm
n270 Praambel, Verfassung der DDR, 6 April 1968: In Fortsetzung der revolutionaren Traditionen der deutschen Arbeiterklasse und gestutzt auf die Befreiung vom Faschismus hat das Volk der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik in Ubereinstimmung mit den Prozessen der geschichtlichen Entwicklung unserer Epoche sein Recht auf sozial-okonomische, staatliche und nationale Selbstbestimmung verwirklicht und gestaltet die entwickelte sozialistische Gesellschaft." Available at: http://www.ddr-im-www.de/Gesetze/Verfassung.htmttsozgesell.
n271 Landesverfassung der Freien Hansestadt Bremen, vom 21 Oktober 1947 (Brem.GBl. S. 251). Erschuttert von der Vernichtung, die die autoritare Regierung der Nationalsozialisten unter MiBachtung der personlichen Freiheit und der Wurde des Menschen in der jahrhundertealten Freien Hansestadt Bremen verursacht hat, sind die Burger dieses Landes willens, eine Ordnung des gesellschaftlichen Lebens zu schaffen, in der die soziale Gerechtigkeit, die Menschlichkeit und der Friede gepflegt werden, in der der wirtschaftlich Schwache vor Ausbeutung geschutzt und alien Arbeitswilligen ein menschenwurdiges Dasein gesichert wird." Praambel, Landesverfassung Bremen, available at: http://www.bremen.de/info/skp/lv/Vrfssngl.htm A comparison of the preamble of the Bremer constitution and the preamble of the East German constitution reveals several interesting equivalences, parallels and divergences.
n272 Jennifer A. Downs, supra note 69, at 360-361 (argues, in my opinion, unconvincingly that first and second generation rights live in symbiosis and are not, in fact, in conflict).
n273 E.g., RUSSIAN CONSTITUTION OF 1936, art. 120 (right to pensions for the elderly) available at: http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:8473/russian/const/36cons04.htmltfchapl0.
n274 Usually social insurance in the liberal democracies is a part of administrative law. Some times however it does enter into constitutional law. E.g., art. 41 Bundesverfassung Schweiz: 1 Bund und Kantone setzen sich in Erganzung zu personlicher Verantwortung und privater Initiative dafur ein, dass: a. jede Person an der sozialen Sicherheit teilhat;..." available at: http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:12044/ch/d/sr/101/a41.html Cf., CONSTITUTION FRANCAISE, art. 1, available at: http://www.assemblee-nat.fr/connaissance/constitution.asp.
n275 CONSTITUTION FRANCAISE, 4 Octobre 1958, Article premier La France est une Republique indivisible, laique, democratique et sociale. Elle assure l'egalite devant la loi de tous les citoyens sans distinction d'origine, de race ou de religion. Elle respecte toutes les croyances.
n276 E.g., The Emancipation Proclamation (1863) available at: http://www.nps.gov/ncro/anti/emancipation.html
n277 Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896) (segregated railways not unconstitutional, later overruled) available at: http://afroamhistory.about.com/library/blplessy_v_ferguson.htm; Cumming v. Board of Ed. of Richmond County, 175 U.S. 528 (1899) (segregated education not unconstitutional, later overruled) available at: http://afroamhistory.about.corn/library/blcumrning_v_richmond.htm
n278 For a listing of the principle apartheid legislation and history see BBC, The Story of Africa: Southern Africa (2003) available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/12chapter7.shtml
n279 For a discussion of the role of revolution in international law (and as expression of the right of national self determination) see Theodor Schweisfurth, The Role of Political Revolution in the Theory of International Law, in Macdonald & Johnston, supra note 39, at 913.
n280 Louis B. Sohn, supra note 5, at 33.
n281 Jennifer A. Downs, supra note 69, at 362 (citing Karel Vasak, Legal Adviser to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and former director of the UNESCO Division of Human Rights and Peace, as the first to use the term 'third generation human rights').
n282 Comment, Developments In The Law - International Environmental Law: V. Institutional Arrangements 104 HARV. L. REV. 1580, 1600 (1991) (notes that individuals have limited rights and duties under international human rights law).
n283 Claire Moore Dickerson, supra note 60, at 1445-1446 (describes third generation rights as collective solidarity rights).
n284 Jennifer A. Downs, supra note 69, at 363 (third generation of rights a consequence of a dynamic view of human rights).
n285 Id. at 358 (describes generational theory of rights).
n286 Declaration on the Right of Peoples to Peace, G.A. res. 39/11, annex, 39 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 51) at 22, U.N. Doc. A/39/51 (1984) available at: http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:4604/humanrts/instree/q3drpp.htm
n287 J. Oloka-Onyango, Human Rights And Sustainable Development In Contemporary Africa: A New Dawn, Or Retreating Horizons? 6 BUFF. HUM. RTS. L. REV. 39, 43 (2000).
n288 African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights June, 26, 1981, O.A.U. Doc. CAB/LEG/67/3/Rev. 5, arts. 19-24 (entered into force Oct. 21, 1986), reprinted in 21 I.L.M. 58 (1982).
n289 1986 Declaration on the Right to Development. Adopted by General Assembly resolution 41/128 of 4 December 1986, available at: http://193.194.138.190/html/menu3/b/74.htm Also see, e.g., Isabella D. Bunn, The Right To Development: Implications For International Economic Law, 15 AM. U. INT'L L. REV. 1425, 1426 (2000) (arguing for "the emergence of the right to development.").
n290 The U.S. generally opposes the idea of a third generation of human rights in international law. But see Barbara Stark, Economic Rights In The United States And International Human Rights law: Toward An "Entirely New Strategy" 44 HASTINGS L.J. 79, 130 (1992) suggesting that third generation rights in the U.S. are protected at the state level rather than the federal level. That view ignores that those claims are generally not defended as inalienable rights but rather are stated to be conditional entitlements accorded to individuals by the state as an act of largesse. A conditional entitlement must be distinguished from an inalienable right.
n291 See, e.g., Alan Greenspan, The Embrace of Free Markets, Remarks at the Woodrow Wilson Award Dinner of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, New York, New York, June 10, 1997.
n293 Thus, radical critiques of human rights as a vector of power are not without foundation. See, e.g., Martha Minow, Rights and Cultural Difference, in Sarat and Kearns, supra note 139, at 355.
n294 See, e.g., (*), Book I, pt. XIII, available at: http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:3306/Aristotle/politics.mb.txt.
n295 Aristotle even recognizes that his arguments for natural slavery and the natural inequality of men and women are flawed, and tries to meet the objections. Id. at Book I, pt. VI.
n296 Aristotle clearly believed that some people were inherently destined for slavery. Id., Book I, pt. V., available at: http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:3306/Aristotle/politics.mb.txt.
n297 But see, Joelle Entelis, International Human Rights: Islam's Friend Or Foe? 20 FORDHAM INT'L L.J. 1251 (1997). Arguing that Algeria is an Example of the Compatibility of International Human Rights law and Islamic law regarding women.
n298 E.g., RIFFAT HASSAN, RELIGIOUS HUMAN RIGHTS IN GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE: RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVES 361-86 (John Witte, Jr. and Johan D. van der Vyver eds., Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 1996) available at: http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:5705/EILR/volumes/spring96/hassan.html
n299 For a discussion of Islamic human rights law and international human rights law see, Bharathi Anandhi Venkatraman, Islamic States And The United Nations Convention On The Elimi nation Of All Forms Of Discrimination Against Women: Are The Shari'a And The Convention Com patible? 44 AM. U. L. REV. 1949, 1951 (1995).
n300 Population Registration Act 30 of 1950; Group Areas Act 41 of 1950; Separate Representation of Voters Act 45 of 1951 (Union of South Africa).
n302 See, e.g., James D. Wilets, International Human Rights Law And Sexual Orientation, 18 HASTINGS INT'L & COMP. L. REV. l (1994).
n303 ARISTOTLE, Nicomachen Ethics(*), Book I, ยง 2 (translated by W.D. Ross) (350 b.c), available at: http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:3306/Aristotle/nicomachaen.1.i.html
n305 JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU, DU CONTRAT SOCIAL OU PRINCIPES DU DROIT POLITIQUE (1752), available at: http://www.google.de/search?q=rousseau+contrat+social&ie=ISO-8859-1&hl=de&meta=.
n306 JOHN LOCKE, SECOND TREATISE ON GOVERNMENT (1690), available at: http://libertyonline.hypermall.com/Locke/second/second-frame.httnl.
n307 Epistemologically, Kant's Kritik der reinen Vernunft (1787) (available at: http://www.gutenberg2000.de/kant/krvb/krvb.htm) is the more important work, though in international law Kant is better known for Zum ewigen Frieden (1795) (available at: http://www.mda.de/homes/matban/de/kant-zef.html). His metaphysics and idealism led him to be rejected because only material facts are capable of scientific proof not opinions or subjective states of mind.
n308 "Liberal" is a much abused term, particularly by "neo" "liberals." To understand the origin and true meaning of the concept of liberality (and by consequence that "neo-liberal" thought is in fact illiberal) see ARISTOTLE, NICHOMACHEAN ETHICS, Book IV Ch. 1, supra note 303, at: http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:3306/Aristotle/nicomachaen.4.iv.html
n309 Karl Marx, Kapital I. MEW 23, 189f.309, 183, 789 (1867), available at: http://www.marx-forum.de/das_kapital/kapital_1/inhalt_1.html
n310 Friedrich Engels, Anti-Duhring, MEW, 20, 95-99 (1887) available at: http://www.mlwerke.de/me/me20/me20_001.htm
n311 V.I. LENIN, The State and Revolution, in 25 COLLECTED WORKS, 381-492 (1918) available at: http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/sep/staterev/
n312 MAO TSE-TUNG, On Policy (1940), in 2 SELECTED WORKS OF MAO TSE-TUNG, 441-49 (Foreign Languages Press, Peking 1965) available at: http://www.marx2mao.org/Mao/OP40.html
n313 For an expose and critique of the conventional wisdom see, Scott D. Syfert, Capitalism Or Corruption? Corporate Structure, Western Investment And Commercial Crime In The Russian Federation, 18 N.Y.L. SCH. J. INT'L & COMP. L. 357 (1999).
n314 Shannan C. Krasnokutski, Human Rights In Transition: The Success And Failure Of Polish And Russian Criminal Justice Reform, 33 CASE W. RES. J. INT'L L. 13 (2001).
n315 Louise Shelley, Post-Soviet Organised Crime And The Rule Of Law, 28 J. MARSHALL L. REV. 827 (1995) ("[o]rganised crime in Russia today is so serious that it threatens human rights, the rule of law, democracy, and free markets").
n316 Id.
n317 Adrien Katherine Wing, The South African Transition To Democratic Rule: Lessons For International And Comparative Law, 94 AM. SOC'Y INT'LL. PROC. 254, 259 (2000).
n318 Christopher C. Joyner, Enforcing Human Rights Standards In The Former Yugoslavia: The Case For An International War Crimes Tribunal, 22 DENV. J. INT'L L. & POL'Y 235, 251 (1994).
n319 Sakak Mahmud, The Failed Transition to Civilian Rule in Nigeria: Implications for Democracy and Human Rights, 40 Afr. TODAY 87 (1993); Okechukwu Oko, Subverting The Scourge Of Corruption In Nigeria: A Reform Prospectus, 34 N.Y.U. J. INT'L L. & POL. 397 (2002).
n320 See, e.g., Loizidou v. Turkey (Merits) (ECHR 40/1993/435/514) (1996).
n321 Alfred C. Aman, supra note 42, at 781 (pointing out global capital mobility). It must be remembered that prior to 1970 international capital mobility was the exception, not the rule.
n322 Jost Delbruck argues that major changes have occurred in international relations and inter national law since 1989 - but that these changes actually affirm sovereignty. Supra note 32, at 705. However, Delbruck himself acknowledges both the disintegration of states such as the U.S.S.R. into smaller states and more importantly the rise of transnational institutions of governance. Id. at 706. The devolution of the sovereign power to other sovereigns cannot be seen as an affirmation of sover eignty but is evidence of its transformation. Further the transnational institutions of global governance clearly affirm the fact that sovereignty has been not only transformed by devolution but also transferred by so many derogations that to speak of a rule of absolute sovereignty is meaningless and to speak of literally dozens of exceptions to a principle of qualified sovereignty is awkward. It would be better theoretically to reconceptualize sovereignty rather than to deny empirical reality in order to affirm outdated dogma. Id. at 705-706.
n323 For an interesting discussion of the convergence of local tribalism and globalisation see BENJAMIN R. BARBER, JIHAD VS. MCWORLD (Times Books, 1995).
n324 See, e.g., Mark Engler, Toward the "Rights of the Poor": Human Rights in Liberation Theology, JOURNAL OF RIGHTS AND ETHICS, JRE 28.3: 337-63 (2000).
n325 As mentioned elsewhere the world is developing institutions and processes of global governance under law. Ulrich K. Preuss, supra note 113, at 305-306. International institutions such as the European Union and the W.T.O. and the U.N. are in fact replacing so many functions of the state that, in concert with devolution and privatization, we can meaningfully speak of a shift of state power from the nation state to regional global and local institutions of governance.
n326 Some predict that claims that Western ideals are universal will increase because of the end of the cold war. See Dianne Otto, supra note 200.
n327 THE ECONOMIST, The Death Of Peronism? Nov. 14, 2002.
n328 THE ECONOMIST, When Push Comes To Shove, Dec. 5, 2002.
n329 T. S. Twibell, Ethiopian Constitutional Law: The Structure Of The Ethiopian Government And The New Constitution's Ability To Overcome Ethiopia's Problems, 21 LOY. L.A. INT'L & COMP. L.J. 399 (1999).