A Human Right to Deliberative Justification

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A core principle of liberal political theory is that citizens are owed a justification for public policies. But are noncitizens owed a justification for policies when their human rights are at stake? In this article, I explain what type of justification is owed to noncitizens, and I propose a principle for when policies must be justified. I argue that noncitizens have a moral human right to an actual, deliberative justification. Unlike other approaches, deliberative justification enables noncitizens to participate in justification procedures, it empowers them to contest public policies, and it is held in independent institutions. Since a concern about noncitizen justification is that there is no compelling standard for when policies must be justified, I propose a Human Rights Duty Principle. It improves upon the coercion, democratic origin, and all-affected interests principles for when justification is required.