Dignity Rather than Rights

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Milbank
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Exchange ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Catholic Social Teaching ◽  
Social Teaching ◽  
External Work ◽  
Internal Reserve ◽  
Liberal Tradition ◽  
Catholic Tradition

This chapter argues that the yoking together of ‘dignity’ and ‘rights’ is unstable, reflecting the ongoing incompatibility of respectively the liberal and the Catholic traditions of human rights. Both traditions adopt an ‘internal’ and ‘external’ understanding of dignity. The liberal tradition aporetically focuses on subjective right and on circumstances of convenience or pleasure. The Catholic tradition reconciled the ancient but uneasy melding of ‘dignity’ as ‘internal’ reserve and as ‘external’ work or social exchange through reference to persona—the adoption of a role in relationship to God. This discourse of ‘dignity’ is perpetuated in Catholic social teaching. The chapter finally suggests the Catholic tradition must continue, through its blend of corporatism and personalism, to emphasize both hierarchy and social role, contrary to the liberal tradition, as central to the dignity of persons.

scholarly journals Subsidiarity in Private Law?

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Mat Campbell
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
English Language ◽  
Catholic Social Teaching ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Social Teaching ◽  
Private Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
European Union Law ◽  
Legal Rules

This is the first English language paper seriously to examine the meaning of subsidiarity from the perspective of private law, in which it might be used to understand legal rules, or the interaction of different kinds of claim. Since there are so few relevant sources in English, this article casts a wide net for consensus. It offers six propositions about what it means to designate a rule or relationship (between legal regimes, say) as one of subsidiarity. These are formulated by reference, principally, to thinking about subsidiarity outwith private law; and, secondarily, to (i) miscellaneous literature about subsidiarity, (ii) the general French private law literature about subsidiarity, and (iii) what little can be gleaned from relevant unjust enrichment discourse in English. The state of play in that discourse is summarised, before the choice of Roman Catholic social teaching, European Union law, and European human rights law as settings to examine for their conceptions of subsidiarity is explained, and subsidiarity in each of these contexts is sketched out. Succeeding sections then outline each proposition, and clarify how it may be derived from the sources. The paper concludes by reflecting guardedly on the potential of subsidiarity in private law, as a way to model the interrelation of private law claims and doctrines.

PART I: Religious Traditions and Migration: Movement, Asylum, Borders: Christian Perspectives

1996 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-17
Author(s):  
S.J. Drew Christiansen
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Catholic Social Teaching ◽  
Moral Theology ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Social Teaching ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Universal Human Rights ◽  
Theological Foundations ◽  
Moral Problems ◽  
And Migration

This paper addresses from the point of view of Catholic social teaching and moral theology the questions posed by the intersection of universal human rights, especially the rights of movement, and the assertion of national sovereignty. It begins with a brief note on the theological foundations of Catholic understanding of exile and refuge, then examines the moral problems involved in the clash between rights of movement and the sovereign control of national borders.

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 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.

Globalization and Benedict XVI’s Caritas in Veritate

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew A. Shadle
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Vulnerable Populations ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Catholic Social Teaching ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Social Teaching ◽  
Catholic Social Thought ◽  
Caritas In Veritate ◽  
The World ◽  
The Trinity

In recent years the economy has become globalized. Globalization is the increased flow of goods, services, capital, people, and culture facilitated by innovations in transportation and communication technologies. This chapter examines the phenomenon of globalization and its impact on Catholic social teaching. It looks, in particular, at Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical Caritas in Veritate. Pope Benedict criticizes how the current global economy exploits and excludes vulnerable populations around the world. Caritas in Veritate further develops the communio framework initiated by John Paul II and proposes that the communion of the three Persons of the Trinity provides a model for the shape globalization should take, recognizing unity in the midst of diversity. The chapter also looks at how Catholic social thought itself is globalizing, examining in particular the work of Mary Mee-Yin Yuen from Hong Kong and Stan Chu Ilo from Nigeria.

Theology as Work: The Mandatum and the Rights of Labor

Horizons ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 128-134
Author(s):  
Patrick T. McCormick
Keyword(s):  
Academic Freedom ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Catholic Social Teaching ◽  
Social Teaching ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Church ◽  
Safe Working

ABSTRACTMany oppose the mandatum as a threat to the academic freedom of Catholic scholars and the autonomy and credibility of Catholic universities. But the imposition of this juridical bond on working theologians is also in tension with Catholic Social Teaching on the rights and dignity of labor. Work is the labor necessary to earn our daily bread. But it is also the vocation by which we realize ourselves as persons and the profession through which we contribute to the common good. Thus, along with the right to a just wage and safe working conditions, Catholic Social Teaching defends workers' rights to a full partnership in the enterprise, and calls upon the church to be a model of participation and cooperation. The imposition of the mandatum fails to live up to this standard and threatens the jobs and vocations of theologians while undermining this profession's contribution to the church.

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