Human Rights : The Commons and the Collective

Westra, Laura

University of British Columbia Press（2012/07発売）

• 製本 Paperback:紙装版/ペーパーバック版／ページ数 392 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9780774821186
• DDC分類 341.48

Full Description

International law has evolved to protect human rights. But what arehuman rights? Does the term have the same meaning in a world beingtransformed by climate change and globalized trade? Are existing lawssufficient to ensure humanity's survival?

Drawing on case law and practice and examples from philosophy, law,and ecology, Laura Westra argues that the current system is notadequate: international law privileges individual over collectiverights, permitting multinational corporations to overlook thecollectivity and the environment in their quest for wealth and power.Unless policy makers redefine human rights and reformulateenvironmental law and policies to protect the preconditions for lifeitself -- water, food, clean air, and biodiversity -- humankind facesthe complete loss of the ecological commons, the preservation of whichis one of our most basic human rights. A new kind of cosmopolitanism,one centred on the United Nations, offers the best hope for preservingour common heritage and the survival of future generations.

Contents

Foreword / William E. Rees

Introduction

Part 1: Basic Collective Rights for Law and Morality -- TheTheory

1 Individual Rights and Collective Rights in Conflict: TheEcocentric Perspective and the Commons

2 The Common Good and the Public Interest: Jus Cogens Norms and ErgaOmnes Obligations in a Lawless World

3 Communities and Collectives: The Interface

Part 2: Collective Rights, Globalization, and Democracy --The Practice

4 Collective Basic Rights Today

5 Globalization, Democracy, and Collective Rights

6 Cosmopolitanism, the Moral Community, and Collective HumanRights

Part 3: Toward a New Cosmopolitanism

7 World Law or International Legal Instruments? Toward theProtection of Basic Collective Human Rights

Conclusion

Notes

Works Cited

Index