Philosophy
Workshop on Human Rights and International Legitimacy
July 6th, 2010
The Courtroom, Cottrell Building
University of Stirling
Speakers
Thomas Christiano (University of Arizona)
Rowan Cruft (University of Stirling)
Katrin Flikschuh (LSE)
Andreas Føllesdal (University of Oslo)
Fabienne Peter (University of Warwick)
Joseph Raz (Columbia University)
Leif Wenar (King’s College London)
Programme
9:30 – 10:00
Registration
10:00 – 11:30
Thomas Christiano (University of Arizona) - “A Democratic Approach to the Legitimacy of International Institutions”
Respondent: Katrin Flikschuh
11:30 – 11:45
Break
11:45 – 13:15
Andreas Føllesdal (University of Oslo) - "The Legitimacy of Human Rights Treaty Organs, especially the European Court on Human Rights"
Respondent: Fabienne Peter
13:15 – 14:15
Lunch
14:15 – 15:45
Leif Wenar (King’s College London) – “Clean Trade in Natural Resources”
15:45 – 16:00
Break
16:00 – 17:30
Joseph Raz (Columbia University) - “Human Rights in the Emerging World Order”
Respondent: Rowan Cruft
Aims and Purposes:
The aim of the workshop is to discuss the question of how we should think about the relationship between human rights and the legitimacy of international institutions. If at the time when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was drafted (1948) human rights were largely aspirational (in the sense that they were not legally binding), recent developments in international law (most notably in relation to humanitarian intervention and international criminal law) have contributed to change the picture. It is now commonly accepted that the legitimacy of those governments that engage in serious human rights violations ought to be put in question, and that national sovereignty can be trumped in order to prevent and punish these violations.
The workshop will bring together a group of philosophers interested in discussing the notion of international legitimacy and in investigating the relationship between international legitimacy and human rights. Among the questions to be addressed there will be the following:
- which principles of justice underlie the international legal system?
- what kind of institutions ought to be adopted in order to implement these principles?
- what are the relationships between state legitimacy and international legitimacy?
- when should national sovereignty be trumped in order to prevent and punish human rights violations?
- what conception of human rights should we adopt in order to deal with new forms of international harm (thereby making sense of the idea that the individual enjoyment of these rights should not be affected by states’ failure to enforce them)?
- how should we account for the distinction between our responsibilities to the members of the international community and our responsibilities to our fellow citizens?
Format:
All the papers will be circulated in advance, and participants will be expected to have read them. Each paper will be assigned a respondent, who will introduce the discussion by raising some objections and discussing some of the points made by the authors. The event will be open to scholar and post-graduates from all over the UK, up to a total of about 25 (numbers will be capped to ensure that the group is small enough for productive discussion).
Organizer:
Dr. Massimo Renzo
Department of Philosophy
University of Stirling
Stirling, FK9 4LA
Scotland, UKSupported by:
The Stirling Philosophy Department
