State Responsibility and Its Distributive Effect

2021 ◽  
pp. 17-43
Author(s):  
Avia Pasternak
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
State Responsibility ◽  
Moral Agents ◽  
Normative Justification ◽  
Proportional Distribution

This chapter presents the problem of the distributive effect and its treatment in existing literature. Starting with the idea that states are corporate moral agents, it suggests that states are morally responsible for their wrongdoings in two distinct senses: they can be blameworthy when they act wrongly, and they incur remedial responsibilities to address the wrong, including paying compensation to its victims. The chapter then contrasts two core views on how the state’s remedial responsibilities should be distributed among its members. The first view supports a proportional distribution, which tracks the state’s members’ blameworthy contributions to their state’s wrongdoings. While this approach caters to individualist intuitions about fairness, it is hard to implement in real-world states. The second approach is nonproportional, and lets the burden fall on the population at large. While easier to implement, it seems to lack a solid normative justification.

The Agential and Functional Theories of State Responsibility

2020 ◽  
pp. 16-45
Author(s):  
Sean Fleming
Keyword(s):  
State Responsibility ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Functional Theory ◽  
Moral Agents ◽  
Blind Spots

This chapter distinguishes, compares, and evaluates the two dominant theories of state responsibility. According to the agential theory, states can be held responsible because they are moral agents like human beings. According to the functional theory, states are principals rather than agents. The primary distinction between the two theories of state responsibility is that they rely on different understandings of how corporate entities can act. The chapter then uses the Three Fundamental Questions to bring the agential and functional theories into dialogue and to put them to the test. It argues that neither provides an adequate set of answers. While the 'agent' and 'principal' models of state responsibility are useful in some respects, each has important gaps and blind spots.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Sean Fleming
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
Thomas Hobbes ◽  
Intentional Action ◽  
Complete Theory ◽  
State Responsibility ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Functional Theory ◽  
Moral Agents

This chapter provides an overview of state responsibility. There are two contemporary theories of state responsibility. According to the agential theory, states can be held responsible because they are 'moral agents' like human beings, with similar capacities for deliberation and intentional action. According to the functional theory, states can be held responsible because they are legal persons that act vicariously through their officials. This book reconstructs and develops a forgotten understanding of state responsibility from Thomas Hobbes' political thought. It argues that the Hobbesian theory of state personality provides a richer understanding of state responsibility than the agential theory or the functional theory. Any cogent and complete theory of responsibility must answer three 'Fundamental Questions' about the entity in question: the Question of Ownership, the Question of Identity, and the Question of Fulfilment.

scholarly journals Moral agents and legal persons: the ethics and the law of state responsibility

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 466-489 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Fleming
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Moral Agency ◽  
State Responsibility ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Functional Theory ◽  
Moral Agents ◽  
Corporate Moral Agency ◽  
The Law

Why, if at all, does it make sense to assign some responsibilities to states rather than to individuals? There are two contemporary answers. According to the agential theory, states can be held responsible because they are moral agents, much like human beings. According to the functional theory, states can be held responsible because they are legal persons that act vicariously through individuals, much like principals who act through agents. The two theories of state responsibility belong to parallel traditions of scholarship that have never been clearly distinguished. While the agential theory is dominant in IR, political theory, and philosophy, the functional theory prevails in International Law. The purpose of this article is to bridge the gulf between ethical and legal approaches to state responsibility. I argue that IR scholars and political theorists have much to gain from the functional theory. First, it provides a plausible alternative to the agential theory that avoids common objections to corporate moral agency. Second, the functional theory helps us to understand features of International Law that have puzzled IR scholars and political theorists, such as the fact that states are not held criminally responsible. I suggest that states can be ‘moral principals’ instead of moral agents.

scholarly journals Making autonomy an instrument: a pragmatist account of contextualized autonomy

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Racine ◽  
Sarah Kusch ◽  
M. Ariel Cascio ◽  
Aline Bogossian
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Empirical Knowledge ◽  
Moral Agents ◽  
Control Information ◽  
Health Ethics ◽  
Political Ideologies ◽  
Contextual Characteristics ◽  
Individual Ability

AbstractAcross societies, cultures, and political ideologies, autonomy is a deeply valued attribute for both flourishing individuals and communities. However, it is also the object of different visions, including among those considering autonomy a highly valued individual ability, and those emphasizing its relational nature but its sometimes-questionable value. A pragmatist orientation suggests that the concept of autonomy should be further specified (i.e., instrumentalized) beyond theory in terms of its real-world implications and usability for moral agents. Accordingly, this latter orientation leads us to present autonomy as an ability; and then to unpack it as a broader than usual composite ability constituted of the component-abilities of voluntariness, self-control, information, deliberation, authenticity, and enactment. Given that particular abilities of an agent can only be exercised in a given set of circumstances (i.e., within a situation), including relationships as well as other important contextual characteristics, the exercise of one’s autonomy is inherently contextual and should be understood as being transactional in nature. This programmatic paper presents a situated account of autonomy inspired by Dewey’s pragmatism and instrumentalism against the backdrop of more individual and relational accounts of autonomy. Using examples from health ethics, the paper then demonstrates how this thinking supports a strategy of synergetic enrichment of the concept of autonomy by which experiential and empirical knowledge about autonomy and the exercise of autonomy enriches our understanding of some of its component-abilities and thus promises to make agents more autonomous.

Private Military Companies and the Jus Ad Bellum

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Ralby
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Real World ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
State Responsibility ◽  
Private Companies ◽  
Jus Ad Bellum ◽  
Private Military Companies

This chapter examines the use of private military companies (PMCs) to deal with international armed conflicts and the prohibition of the use of force in relation to such entities. It considers the jus ad bellum implications of private military contracting in international law and international relations. The chapter explains what PMCs are and what they do, drawing a distinction between mercenaries and various terms used to refer to private companies hired by states in lieu of armed forces. It presents case studies where PMCs have engaged in prohibited or lawful use of force at the behest of a state, or where they may be used by a state in situations that run counter to jus ad bellum. Three real-world examples are highlighted. The chapter concludes by assessing the implications of using PMCs in armed conflicts for state responsibility with respect to the prohibition on the use of force.

Replications can cause distorted belief in scientific progress

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michał Białek
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
Scientific Progress ◽  
The Public ◽  
Psychological Science

AbstractIf we want psychological science to have a meaningful real-world impact, it has to be trusted by the public. Scientific progress is noisy; accordingly, replications sometimes fail even for true findings. We need to communicate the acceptability of uncertainty to the public and our peers, to prevent psychology from being perceived as having nothing to say about reality.

Current Issues: Evidence-Based Practice for the Real World: Thoughts on Clinical Education in Communication Disorders

2010 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 100-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne K. Bothe
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Education ◽  
Real World ◽  
Evidence Based Practice ◽  
Communication Disorders ◽  
University Faculty ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Speech Language Pathology ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
The Real ◽  
Language Pathology

This article presents some streamlined and intentionally oversimplified ideas about educating future communication disorders professionals to use some of the most basic principles of evidence-based practice. Working from a popular five-step approach, modifications are suggested that may make the ideas more accessible, and therefore more useful, for university faculty, other supervisors, and future professionals in speech-language pathology, audiology, and related fields.

Qualitative Case Study Research Design

2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Tetnowski
Keyword(s):  
Research Design ◽  
Real World ◽  
Qualitative Case Study ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
Study Research

Qualitative case study research can be a valuable tool for answering complex, real-world questions. This method is often misunderstood or neglected due to a lack of understanding by researchers and reviewers. This tutorial defines the characteristics of qualitative case study research and its application to a broader understanding of stuttering that cannot be defined through other methodologies. This article will describe ways that data can be collected and analyzed.

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