Cosmopolitan Right Research Articles

The Critical Analysis of the Viability of Cosmopolitan Democracy in the 21st Century: Cosmopolitanism, the Present and the Future

This review aims to critically analyse the concept of cosmopolitanism as applicable to global democracy. It firstly questions the viability of cosmopolitan democracy from the practicality of this concept on a pragmatic, rather than an idealistic lens, to its 'world state' concept where a decentralised system of governance is sustained by various decision-making sources whilst honouring states with some level of national autonomy. Issues raised, such as distributive justice, coercion and partiality, the cosmopolitan conceptual legitimacy at a global level, citizenship, reciprocity and sovereignty, oppose the legitimacy and practicality of this concept, giving statists, sovereigntists, nationalists and other sceptics of the cosmopolitan Agenda reasons to question this ideology. The second part of this review aims to answer these questions, explaining how this concept practically fits into today's global society as an effective form of global governance. The Moderate-Moral Cosmopolitan ideology will be used to critically address the issues of military interventions: the legality of human rights, the preference for transnational laws over international laws in the propagation of cosmopolitan rights and the role of expert bodies in ensuring that the enforcement of these rights whilst spreading cosmopolitan democracy is effective.

OBSERVATIONS ON SEYLA BENHABIB’S INTERPRETATIONS OF THE COSMOPOLITAN RIGHTS

OBSERVATIONS ON SEYLA BENHABIB’S INTERPRETATIONS OF THE COSMOPOLITAN RIGHTS

Normative Foundations of Kant’s Cosmopolitan Right: The Overlooked Legacy of Kant’s Metaphysics of Nature

AbstractKant’s philosophy of natural science has traditionally concentrated on a host of issues including the role of laws of nature and teleological judgements. However, so far, the literature has made virtually no contact with the no less important tradition in Kant’s legal and political philosophy. This article explores one aspect of such connection in relation to the normative foundations of Kant’s notion of cosmopolitan right. I argue that Kant’s argument for cosmopolitan right is based on two main premises: the first is what I call thelaw of equilibrium, and the second is thepremise of physical interaction(commerciumin Latin) at work behind what Kant called the original ‘community of land’. The article argues that the relevant notion of community quacommerciumshould be understood in the context of Kant’s metaphysics of nature as a ‘real community of substances’ governed by a dynamical law of equality of action and reaction. This metaphysical-causal interpretive reading has far-reaching implications for the foundations of cosmopolitan right and its scope of applicability well beyond Kant’s envisaged right to universal hospitality.

Kant’s domestic analogy: international and global order

The domestic analogy is an old but persistent problem in theories of international politics. This paper examines the problem in the work of Immanuel Kant, whose political writings are often cited as a paradigmatic example of the analogy between individuals and states. Attention to Kant’s own conception of analogy, however, shows that the political writings are structured by another “domestic analogy”—between international and cosmopolitan right. This analogy, I argue, is based on a correspondence between the systematic unity of the international and the spherical globe, the figure that for Kant represents the boundaries of world order. International and cosmopolitan right are thus distinguished on the basis of a geopolitical criterion: the global scope of international order. This analogy of order, the paper argues, thus works to domesticate world politics through the structural form of international order. To the extent that contemporary theories of international relations rely on this conception of order, they accept Kant’s answer to the problem of perpetual peace. The paper concludes by drawing broader conclusions from the analysis about the domestic analogy, international order, and world politics.

The Chinese Exclusion Act and The Late Qing Chinese Cosmopolitanism

Abstract This article examines a specific set of literary texts, both in English and Chinese, produced by a few Chinatown leaders and some Chinese writers as they protested against the anti-Chinese sentiments and the Chinese Exclusion Act in the second half of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth century. Those Chinese-authored texts resisted the homogenizing view of the Chinese people by the Westerners, advocating a cosmopolitan class above race, and used commercial amity to assert the Chinese people's cosmopolitan right. The moral compass of the Chinese merchants in those literary stories also puts forward an alternative model of global capitalism that evolved from the traditional Chinese idea of tianxia. Reading these texts can help us build a more historicized view of Chineseness and the Chinese worldview prior to the rise of state-centered nationalisms in modern China, on the one hand, and understand the epistemological framework and limit of modern nationalisms, on the other.

Unregulated Immigration Law Clinics and Kant’s Cosmopolitan Right: Challenging The Political Status Quo

Unregulated law clinics in England and Wales are prohibited from directly offering immigration advice and assistance. This article argues that this restriction should not be a barrier to teaching immigration law. Kant’s duty-based ethics and his cosmopolitan right can provide a useful normative framework for challenging the political status quo in relation to the regulation of law clinics and policies affecting migrants. It is argued that introducing normative values into Clinical Legal Education can address the limitations of the conventional ‘hired-gun’ model and engender students to a more holistic approach to lawyering. In other words, a model which promotes the causes of third parties.

Cosmopolitan Rights, Global Tax Justice, and the Morality of Cooperation

Cosmopolitan Rights, Global Tax Justice, and the Morality of Cooperation

Cosmopolitan Rights, Global Tax Justice, and the Morality of Cooperation

This Article addresses two related first-order questions about morality that enable us to discern solutions that address second-order questions in the specific policy context of regulation of tax competition and BEPS: (1) what kind of justice conception has sufficient normative support to undergird regulation attempts of this global phenomenon to ensure cosmopolitan tax rights? (the global tax justice question); and (2) what are the pre-conditions of effective cooperation, not based on immediate self-interest, that eschew a market-based approach to tax competition, enabling background conditions for the morality of multilateral cooperation? (the morality of cooperation question). The Article addresses the global tax justice question by discussing the Rawlsian premises to the concept of tax justice and its developments within the internationalist approach; the Article then shifts the focus on the cosmopolitan challenge to Rawls, which introduces, atleast theoretically, the possibility of fundamental rights of global tax justice to then draw conclusions about three available normative options for the governance of tax competition and BEPS, which can be derived from the previous analysis. The Article then addresses the morality of cooperation question by examining current literature about non-self-interested cooperation, extending this analysis to the social sanctioning of tax competition, and concludes by proposing a broad first-order framework for second-order policy decisions.

“The Humble Cosmopolitan Rights, Diversity, and Trans-State Democracy” by Luis Cabrera

It is often alleged that debates on cosmopolitanism and global justice are blind towards non-western normative resources. In The Humble Cosmopolitan: Rights, Diversity, and Trans-state Democracy, published by the Oxford University Press in 2020, Luis Cabrera responds to such a charge by presenting an account of institutional cosmopolitanism imbued with the norm of political humility. By interpreting Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar’s political vision and the practices inspired by it, Cabrera articulates a theory of institutional cosmopolitanism that not only has an egalitarian slant, but more importantly is imbued with the ideal of political humility.

Freedom in the External Relation of All Human Beings: On Kant’s Cosmopolitanism

AbstractAn influential interpretation of Kant’s Doctrine of Right suggests that the relationship between public right and freedom is constitutive rather than instrumental. The focus has been on domestic right and members’ relations to their own state. This has resulted in a statist bias which has not adequately dealt with the fact that Kant regards public right as a system composed of three levels – domestic, international and cosmopolitan right. This article suggests that the constitutive relationship is between all levels of right, on the one hand, and ‘freedom in the external relation’ of all human beings, on the other hand.

Kant über das Recht des Privatgebrauchs des Erdbodens

AbstractAs is well known, § 6 of Kant’s Metaphysical First Principles of the Doctrine of Right contains five paragraphs that do not belong there. The article shows that their correct location is at the end of § 16. This sheds some new light on Kant’s theory of property and its significance for Kant’s doctrine of cosmopolitan right.

Cosmopolitanism and Space in Kant's Political Thought

Kant’s cosmopolitanism can be read from two main perspectives: temporal and spatial. Reading cosmopolitanism from a temporal perspective means paying attention to the historical realization of the ideal of cosmopolitanism and to its related issues such as: the progress of humankind, its final destination, the purpose of universal history, the highest purpose of nature. Instead, reading cosmopolitanism from a spatial perspective means paying attention, e.g. to the ‘fact’ of the sphericity of the earth and to its relationship with cosmopolitan right, territoriality, borders and freedom of movement. In this paper I would like to show how adopting a spatial perspective is useful not only in order to delimit a field of inquiry, but also to shed new light on apparently well-known and thoroughly investigated notions of Kant’s cosmopolitanism, such as the notions of the citizen of the world, of the cosmopolitan right, and of the World republic.

Interculturalidade e paz perpétua

A proposta de paz perpétua escrita por Kant depende do cumprimento de artigos que dirimem conflitos entre indivíduos e estados nacionais, dentre eles: a necessidade de se estabelecer uma ordem cosmopolita de hospitalidade e respeito ao próximo. A presente pesquisa reside na inquietação kantiana a respeito do direito cosmopolita entre os indivíduos no cenário multicultural sob a ótica da interculturalidade. A problemática reside em estabelecer uma ligação entre a inquietação kantiana e a complexidade da efetividade dos direitos humanos diante das diferentes culturas. Os dados coletados a partir da pesquisa bibliográfica demonstram que a atual ideia de direitos humanos necessita uma ressignificação e a superação de antigos conflitos teóricos que impedem a ressignificação da dignidade humana e, por consequência, não permite a inserção destes direitos em distintas culturas.

A ORDEM METACONSTITUCIONAL DE DIREITOS HUMANOS E SEUS DESAFIOS NO MUNDO GLOBALIZADO

O presente trabalho tem por objetivo analisar as perspectivas de implantação de uma ordem metaconstitucional de direitos humanos, na qual o regime jurídico de proteção dos direitos fundamentais transcende as fronteiras do estado soberano. Para tanto, é necessário investigar os impactos do fenômeno da globalização neodarwinista que se projetam sobre a formação de uma ordem universal kantiana de direitos cosmopolitas. É nesse sentido que o presente trabalho pretende demonstrar que a proteção dos direitos humanos no mundo globalizado caminha entre duas grandes perspectivas autoexcludentes, quais sejam, de um lado, o projeto epistemológico neoliberal da ordem unipolar americana e, do outro, o projeto epistemológico metaconstitucional da ordem mundial multipolar. Em consequência, é importante examinar os desafios que o mundo globalizado apresenta à formação de uma ordem metaconstitucional de direitos humanos inspirada na força normativa do direito cosmopolítico kantiano de curso universal.

The stage on which our ingenious play is performed: Kant's epistemology of Weltkenntnis

This paper focuses on Kant's account of physical geography and his theory of the Earth. In spelling out the epistemological foundations of Kant's physical geography, the paper examines 1) their connection to the mode of holding-to-be-true, mathematical construction and empirical certainty and 2) their implications for Kant's view of cosmopolitan right. Moreover, by showing the role played by the mathematical model of the Earth for the foundations of Kant's Doctrine of Right, the exact relationship between the latter and physical geography is highlighted. Finally, this paper shows how, in Kant's view, the progress of physical geography can be assured if and only if the free circulation of human beings is established and regulated by law. Therefore, examining the mutual relationship between the theory of Earth and the foundations of right opens new perspectives on the relationship between epistemology and practical philosophy within Kant's system.

Between 'Member-Driven' WTO Governance and 'Constitutional Justice': Judicial Dilemmas in GATT/WTO Dispute Settlement

Globalization and the recognition of human rights and constitutionalism by all UN member states entail that also international courts increasingly interpret their judicial mandates and multilateral treaties in conformity with 'constitutional principles' as multilevel governance of transnational public goods (PGs) constraining intergovernmental power politics through judicial protection of transnational rule of law for the benefit of citizens. US President Trump, the 'Brexit', and an increasing number of non-democratic rulers (e.g. in China, Russia, and Turkey) challenge multilateral treaty systems, international adjudication and 'cosmopolitan rights' by ‘populist protectionism’ prioritizing ‘bilateral deals’. This contribution uses the US blockage of the WTO Appellate Body system for illustrating the 'republican argument' that transnational PGs cannot be protected without judicial remedies, rule of law and democratic governance. Adversely affected governments, citizens and courts of justice must hold power politics more accountable so as to protect PGs for the benefit of citizens and their constitutional rights. WTO members should use their power of majority voting for authoritative interpretations of WTO law supporting ‘judicial administration of justice’ in multilevel governance of the world trading system. Multilevel judicial control of trade regulation legitimizes ‘member-driven governance’ by protecting rule of law as approved by parliaments for the benefit of citizens, their equal rights and social welfare.

Sense and Limits of the Fichtean Project of a Closed Commercial State

In this paper, I intend to determine the objectives and limitations of the project developed by Fichte in The Closed Commercial State. In order to achieve these aims, I first identify the problems that are left open in the cosmopolitan right of the Foundations of the Natural Right, in particular by virtue of the assumption of universal egoism. In this way, I seek to understand the project of The Closed Commercial State as an attempt to solve these outstanding issues. Thereafter, I reconstruct the central argumentations of the later text in order to make its architecture clear, according to its primary objectives. Finally, I consider the problem of the viability of this project, taking into account the lack of a moral education for the citizens focused on certain moral and psychological dispositions, which should reduce the greed for superfluous goods.

“What Kant Would Have Said in the Refugee Crisis”

The paper starts out from a debate that occurred in Germany in 2015, where interpreters claimed to be able to divine Immanuel Kant’s views of the contemporary refugee crisis. It does not attempt to give a substantive answer to the title question, i.e. it does not try to specify the conclusive extension of cosmopolitan right. In contrast, it outlines the systematic work that would have to be done in order to be able to answer the title question. I start from cosmopolitan right as natural right and ask what kinds of transformations cosmopolitan right would have to undergo to form a legitimate part of public international law, in parallel to Kant’s move from provisional private law to peremptory public law in his Doctrine of Right. For that purpose, I introduce distinctions between trivial and non-trivial transformation, between strong (i.e. property-related) and weak (property-unrelated) transformation, and between transformation based on historically blameworthy and historically blameless action.

How cosmopolitanism reduces conflict: A broad reading of Kant’s third ingredient for peace

Kant’s theory of peace has been reinterpreted under one of the most influential research programs of our times: The so-called democratic peace theory. In particular, the third ingredient of Kant’s “recipe” for peace —the cosmopolitan right to visit—has been recognized as a powerful and effective instrument to reduce militarized interstate conflicts. In the hands of political scientists, however, this ingredient has often become nothing more than a set of rules for securing and facilitating international trade and economic interdependence. This article argues that this narrow reading mistakes international trade as the essence of the third definitive article. Kant sees economic interdependence as a means to realize what cosmopolitan right is truly about, that is, the affirmation of a set of rules for protecting humans qua humans, the creation of communal bonds among individuals beyond national or group loyalties, and the promotion of a global moral conscience modeled on the natural rights of man. An accurate understanding of cosmopolitan right is essential to avoid the popular - yet mistaken - idea that Kant sees progress towards peace as possible without individuals’ and peoples’ moral progress.

Moral and political conceptions of human rights: rethinking the distinction

In one important strand of the philosophical debate, human rights are seen as a practical benchmark to evaluate and orient matters of national politics, international relations and global governance. The article investigates the possible benefits and problems of this approach. Problematising the well-established distinction between moral and political human rights in philosophical human rights debate, the author follows Paolo Gilabert's attempt to alternatively discuss human rights under the perspective of rights having both an abstract and a specific dimension. Discussing the (self-)understanding of the contemporary human being as representing the subject of human rights, Axel Honneth's recognition theory is applied to concretise Gilabert's humanist claim to do justice to the ‘essentially social’ nature of the human being. While holding on to the traditional idea that human rights are in first instance to be understood as individual rights human beings have in virtue of being human, the important international political function of human rights is accounted for by introducing the term cosmopolitan rights.