scholarly journals Taking Human Rights Not Too Seriously

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 31-64
Author(s):  
Piotr Mazurkiewicz
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Catholic Social Teaching ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Teaching ◽  
Human Right ◽  
The West ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

The doctrine of human rights is undergoing a difficult test today. On the one hand, we are dealing with a recurring question about its universality. Is it only an expression of Western anthropological sensitivity and should therefore be observed only in the West, or does it refer to human nature as it is and should therefore be observed everywhere, including in Islamic civilisation? On the other hand, secularisation detaches the doctrine from its theistic sources, resulting in its positivisation. Human rights in this version would only be the result of agreements between people and, therefore, like any other social contract, could be freely changed or reinterpreted. An example of such a reinterpretation of the doctrine is the proposal to recognise abortion as a human right. The author also addresses these issues from the position of Catholic social teaching and raises the question of the consequences of these changes for the Church and its official absolute or conditional support for the doctrine.

On the Concept of Freedom in the West

2020 ◽  
pp. 37-42
Author(s):  
Rached Ghannouchi
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
The Other ◽  
Free Agent ◽  
The West ◽  
Power Domination ◽  
New Class ◽  
Determining Factors ◽  
The One ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Church

This chapter examines the Western concept of freedom. It links this concept to human rights and expounds on its history in the West. Here, the origin of the various declarations of human rights is associated with the historical rise of the bourgeoisie and, fundamentally, with the struggle that took place between the new class of merchants and industry leaders on the one hand and the kings, feudal lords, and the church on the other. In fact, the chapter argues that to conceive of the free agent as a person without any outside pressure underlines a negative and mechanical definition of individual freedoms. It asserts that the balance of powers—political power, domination, and wealth—are the true determining factors of rights and freedoms in the West. Despite these, the chapter stresses that the development of human rights is indeed significant; it is only that such a legacy fails to shine through from within Western political and economic structures as well as the international arena.

Human Rights between Jurisprudence and Social Science

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
ALEXANDRA HUNEEUS
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Social Science Theory ◽  
Science Theory ◽  
The One

AbstractThis article argues that human rights law – which mediates between claims about universal human nature, on the one hand, and hard-fought political battles, on the other – is in particular need of a richer exchange between jurisprudential approaches and social science theory and methods. Using the example of the Inter-American Human Rights System, the article calls for more human rights scholarship with a new realist sensibility. It demonstrates in what ways legal and social science scholarship on human rights law both stand to improve through sustained, thoughtful exchange.

Human Rights under State Socialism

1984 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 349-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Lane
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
The Other ◽  
The West ◽  
Russian Culture ◽  
Collective Rights ◽  
Normative Approach ◽  
The Third ◽  
The One

The paper is in four parts. The first outlines the debate that has occurred in the West about whether human rights, and about what human rights, are desirable and possible in socialist states. In the second it is contended that the normative approach to rights in socialist states has been influenced but not determined by the theory and practice of the USSR. Human rights under Marxism–Leninism are ambiguously defined: there is an unresolved tension between individual (and group) rights, on the one hand, and class and collective rights on the other. Socialist states, it is claimed, have different units, types of claims and priorities of rights. In the third section, it is argued that the Soviet model of rights has a particular correspondence with Russian culture. Its impact on other socialist countries (Poland is considered, as an illustration) depends on the internal social structure (the strength of interest groups) and the degree of legitimacy of the state. Finally, some prognostications are offered concerning the dynamics and likely developments of rights claims under socialism.

scholarly journals Theology and Romanticism

1920 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 362-389
Author(s):  
Herbert L. Stewart
Keyword(s):  
Human Development ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
The Other ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church ◽  
Ebb And Flow

The widespread reaction towards the Church of Rome by which the first half of the last century was marked, has been subjected to a multitude of more or less intelligent explanations. It was to be expected from poor human nature that each critic should explain in accordance with that law of human development which he had himself embraced, and in illustration of that moral which he deemed it most salutary to draw. In this field the disciple of Bossuet will be forever at issue with the disciple of Comte. From the one we hear how the eyes of Europe had been providentially opened by long years of anarchy and bloodshed, how the spirit of schism had been at length unmasked, how the exhausted nations were taught once more to value a unified spiritual control, and how amid the wreck of thrones and the desolation of kingdoms the very dullest of mankind must have been awed by the spectacle of the Chair of Peter standing fast, an authentic token of the Mighty Hand and the Outstretched Arm. From the other side we listen to the cold comment that world disasters are apt to drive back the less robust sort of mind to the solace of old superstition, that mental progress like all things human has its ebb and flow, and that we need not be surprised if a season of shivering credulity alternates with a season of fearless rationalism. The philosophic historian may well be left to wear himself out in this profitless debate with the brethren of his own craft. Non nostri est tantas componere lites.

scholarly journals Corruption, Corporations, and the New Human Right

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew B. Spalding
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ◽  
Corporate Rights ◽  
Federal Statute ◽  
Corporate Liability

We should no longer expect the Alien Tort Statute to be the principal federal statute that deters overseas corporate rights violations. That distinction rightly belongs to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, an antibribery statute that rests on undisputed principles of corporate liability, contains a clear congressional statement of extraterritorial application, and routinely collects penalties from multinational corporate defendants. Scholars have not associated the FCPA with human rights, owing principally to a thin understanding of rights theory. But freedom from corruption can and should be understood as a human right, one that is as old as social contract theory but new to federal and international law. With specific reforms—one modeled after environmental law and the other after intellectual property—the FCPA can become a more powerful statutory tool for deterring overseas corporate rights violations than the ATS ever was or will be.

scholarly journals The Figurative World of Leontius, Presbyter of Constantinople. Part 2

2021 ◽  
pp. 140-175
Author(s):  
Михаил Асмус
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Functions ◽  
Royal Power ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Ecumenical Council ◽  
Symbolic Images ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

Второй раздел статьи посвящён анализу образного мира Леонтия как одному из факторов, подтверждающих принадлежность текстов одному автору, а также выявляющих уровень риторической подготовки и мастерства проповедника. Анализ символических образов Леонтия (Церковь и Её священнодействия, Агнец Божий, Хлеб Небесный, царская власть Христа) демонстрирует, с одной стороны, его приверженность евхаристическому реализму и цельной экклезиологии, объединяющей тайносовершительную и социальную функции Церкви, с другой стороны - выявляет некоторую размытость границ между символом и передаваемой им реальностью, увлечение художественной завершённостью образа, которое иногда приводит проповедника к отступлению от отстаиваемых им же богословских положений. Сдержанность Леонтия в развитии идеи царской власти Христа по человечеству хорошо объясняется его дохалкидонским христологическим мышлением, а также тем, что проповедник находился под свежим впечатлением от ересей конца IV в. (Маркелл Анкирский) и их осуждения на II Вселенском Соборе. Последнее позволяет более уверенно датировать леонтиевский корпус концом IV - началом V в. Analysis of the symbolic images of Leontius (the Church and her sacraments, the Lamb of God, the Bread of Heaven, the royal power of Christ) demonstrates, on the one hand, Leontius’ commitment to Eucharistic realism and integral ecclesiology, uniting the sacramental and social functions of the Church, on the other hand, reveals some blurring of the boundaries between the symbol and the reality, and the fascination with the literary completeness of the image, which sometimes leads the preacher to deviate from the theological positions defended by him. The restraint of Leontius in the development of the idea of the royal power of Christ by His human nature is well explained by his pre-Chalcedonian Christology, as well as by the fact that the preacher was under a fresh impression of the heresies of the late 4th century (Marcellus of Anсyra) and their condemnation at the II Ecumenical Council. The latter makes it possible to more confidently date the Corpus Leontianum of the late 4th - early 5th centuries.

scholarly journals Climate Change, Catholic Social Teaching, and Human Rights

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 171-192
Author(s):  
Richard W. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Catholic Social Teaching ◽  
Environmental Concerns ◽  
Social Teaching ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Climate Stability

Abstract The development of human rights thinking in the United Nations and the Catholic Church has operated on a separate track from the development of thinking regarding environmental concerns. This paper traces this historical divergence and some factors contributing to this divergence. It argues that climate stability is the most pressing earth system problem and not only should not be neglected by human rights thinkers (as in Catholic circles) or actively resisted in human rights circles (as argued by a prominent academic human rights lawyer); rather, a stable climate system should be considered a basic human right.

scholarly journals Justice Problem with Marxist and Liberal Approaches: Philosophical Justification and Economic Interpretation

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 116-126
Author(s):  
M. S. Sushentsova ◽  
◽  
M. A. Miroshnichenko ◽  
Ph. A. Lymar ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
The Other ◽  
Market Exchange ◽  
Economic Exploitation ◽  
Economic Interpretation ◽  
Fair Market ◽  
The One ◽  
Liberal Thought

This article compares Marx’s understanding of such concepts as rights, freedom and equality underlying the concept of justice with that of classical and modern liberalism. It is shown that Marx did not reject the key values of liberalism but approached them from two perspectives — historical and anthropological. On the one hand, Marx criticized the exercise of human rights under capitalism as «bourgeois», pointing out that they justify the alienation of the human condition and disguise economic exploitation as fair market exchange. On the other hand, Marx proposed his own model of future equality based on the values of self-realization and solidarity, and ultimately on his idea of the «generic» human nature. This approach goes beyond deontological justice, developed by modern liberal thought in the Rawlsian spirit, and at the same time brings Marx’s views closer to the tradition of natural law and modern communitarianism.

Why the West is Perceived as Being Unworthy of Cooperation

2010 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 594-613 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gorik Ooms
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social System ◽  
Natural Rights ◽  
The Other ◽  
The West ◽  
The Social ◽  
Natural Sense ◽  
The One ◽  
Sense Of Justice ◽  
In Virtue Of

Natural selection generated a natural sense of justice. This natural sense of justice created a set of natural rights; rights humans accorded to each other in virtue of being members of the same tribe. Sharing the responsibility for natural rights between all members of the same tribe allowed humans to take advantage of all opportunities for cooperation. Human rights are the present day political emanation of natural rights. Theoretically, human rights are accorded by all humans to all humans in virtue of being humans; however, the idea that the corresponding responsibility is now shared among all humans is not broadly accepted. The natural sense of justice creates an ambiguity: on the one hand humans consider the nation they belong to as the social system that should guarantee their human rights (and likewise they do not consider themselves as having responsibility for the human rights of inhabitants of other nations); on the other hand, as cooperation between nations intensifies, expectations of global mutual responsibility increase as well.

The Catholic Church, “Politics,” and Violence: The Colombian Case

1977 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 220-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel H. Levine ◽  
Alexander W. Wilde
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Social Presence ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
The Other ◽  
Public Controversy ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Catholic Church

The issue of politics and the Catholic Church in Latin America, relegated until recently to nineteenth-century historians, is very much alive today. On the one hand, the church as an institution is enmeshed in public controversy over human rights with repressive regimes from Paraguay to Panama, from Brazil to Chile. When it serves as a shelter for political and social dissent, it is accused by secular authorities of engaging in a “new clericalism.” On the other hand, it has been assailed by critics within for being wed to existing political powers. These radical clergy and lay people believe that the church's social presence is inevitably political, but want to change its alliances to benefit the poor and dispossessed. Furthermore, they believe that the existing order in given situations is aform of “institutionalized violence” against which the Christian response must be “counterviolence.” Such attacks from right and left occur, paradoxically, just at a time when the Latin American church has turned with unprecedented resolve to fundamental pastoral tasks. Politics has thus become a problem just as the hierarchy can claim, with considerable justification, to have eschewedthe practice of partisanship and the pursuit of power.

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