Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- PART ONE
- PART TWO
- CHAPTER THREE Normative issues in international relations: the domain of discourse and the method of argument
- CHAPTER FOUR Towards the construction of a normative theory of international relations
- CHAPTER FIVE Reconciling rights and sovereignty: the constitutive theory of individuality
- CHAPTER SIX The justification of unconventional violence in international relations: a hard case for normative theory
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
CHAPTER FIVE - Reconciling rights and sovereignty: the constitutive theory of individuality
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- PART ONE
- PART TWO
- CHAPTER THREE Normative issues in international relations: the domain of discourse and the method of argument
- CHAPTER FOUR Towards the construction of a normative theory of international relations
- CHAPTER FIVE Reconciling rights and sovereignty: the constitutive theory of individuality
- CHAPTER SIX The justification of unconventional violence in international relations: a hard case for normative theory
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Introduction
I am attempting to construct a background theory which justifies the list of goods currently accepted as settled in international relations. I considered order based justifications and utilitarian justifications and found them both wanting. I then turned to rights based theories which used the notion of contract and found that such rights based theories held promise with regard to the justification of several of the items on the list of settled norms. Most obviously it seemed plausible enough to suppose that a rights based theory would justify the settled norm referring to democratic institutions within states, the settled norm which required that states be both internally and externally concerned with the protection of human rights, and the settled norm asserting that international law is a good thing. However, I argued that at first glance it seemed rather improbable to suppose that the settled norm referring to the preservation of the system of states and the norm establishing that state sovereignty is a good could be justified by a rights based background theory. There seemed to be a basic tension between those norms concerned with the preservation of the system of states and sovereignty on the one hand, and those norms related to individual human rights on the other hand. It seemed that human rights norms were best seen as setting limits to the ambit of the sovereignty related norms, rather than as justifying those norms.
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- Towards a Normative Theory of International RelationsA Critical Analysis of the Philosophical and Methodological Assumptions in the Discipline with Proposals Towards a Substantive Normative Theory, pp. 161 - 186Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1986