Human Rights: pragmatic utility, theoretical approach and complex societies
| Autor | Giovanni Bombelli |
| Páginas | 1733-1757 |
Working Group: Human Rights • 1733
Human Rights: Pragmatic Utility, Theoretical
Approach and Complex Societies
Giovanni Bombelli
Abstract: Globalization is a typical process of the complex societies and it has
enabledthe widediusion ofthe notionof humanrights relatedto dierent
issuesmulticulturalismeconomicsocialdierencesgenderissuesandsoon
Nevertheless this notion is very discussed and in this paper I will focus on
two aspects: the pragmatic level and the theoretical perspective. Human rights
have a pragmatic utility since they put in evidence ‘subjective positions’ and
givethemalegalprotectionthroughdierenttoolsnationallawinternational
declarationsconstitutionsnongovernmentalorganizationsOnatheoretical
level the question concerning the foundation of human rights is problematic,
with relation to their philosophical origins and historical application. So, on the
one side human rights are really a new legal language but, on the other side,
they call for the recourse to the legal positivist instruments (especially interna-
tionalCourtsWeshouldshiftfromthetraditionalnotionofhumanrightsto
theprotectionofanthropologicaluniversaldimensionsasthey emergeinto
complex societies. Hence the necessity to rethink the modern paradigm of hu-
manrights basedon theequivalence individualrightshuman rightsand
the contemporary one, which took shape during the last century and extended
thelistofhumanrights toeldsaseducationlabourandindividualdignity
Complex societies require a more sophisticated paradigm and a new ‘list’ of
human rights, grounded on new ‘goods’ to be protected concerning economics,
the new labour sphere, environmental protection, genetic revolution and com-
municationietheaccesstonewtechnologiesThisevolutionhastofacethe
process by which the new pair ‘soft law-hard law’ progressively destroys the
traditional vision of law as a ‘complex’ dimension raising, in this direction, the
question about its western nature.
Keywords: Utility - Theory - Complexity
1734 • XXVI World Congress of Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy
1. A Premise
As it is universally recognized, globalization represents a typical
process within the contemporary and complex societies. It has allowed,
maybea lilebit paradoxicallyand vssomeperspectives1), the wide
diusionofthe notionofhuman rightscertainlymore widelyifwe
compare the current debate to the discussion held during the last cen-
tury.2
Neverthelessfromatheoreticalpointofviewtheconceptofhu-
man right’ still seems very generic because of its association with many
anddierentquestionsorclaimsSothisnotionispragmatically referred
either to multiculturalism3ortoeconomicsocialorreligiousdierence4
and to gender/sexual issues5 and so on. For this reason it has proved dif-
culttoconceptualizeon a theoretical levelthenotionofhuman right
1
Zygmunt Bauman, Globalization: the Human Consequences (Cambridge: Polity Press,
1998).
2
About this point see the essays presented in Social Research. An International Quar-
terly, 79, no. 4 (2012). See also: Daniel E. Lee and Elizabeth J. Lee, Human Rights and the
Ethics of Globalization (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010); Joseph Stiglitz,
“Human Rights and Globalization: e Responsibility of States and of Private Actors”, in
Catholic Social Doctrine And Human Rights (Proceedings of the 15th Plenary Session
1-5 May 2009 of the Pontical Academy of Social Sciences), ed. Roland Minnerath, Om-
bretta Fumagalli Carulli and Vittorio Possenti (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana,
2010): 341-346; Hans Tietmeyer, “Globalization and the Present Crisis”, in Catholic So-
cial Doctrine And Human Rights (Proceedings of the 15th Plenary Session 1-5 May
2009 of the Pontical Academy of Social Sciences), ed. Roland Minnerath, Ombretta
Fumagalli Carulli and Vittorio Possenti (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2010):
591-596; David Kinely, Civilizing Globalization: Human Rights and the Global Econo-
my (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009); Global Governance and the Quest
for Justice, ed. Roger Brownsword (Oxford-Portland, Or.: Hart, 2004), vol. IV.
3
Jürgen Habermas and Charles Taylor, Multiculturalismo: lotte per il riconoscimento
(Milano: Feltrinelli, 1998); Will Kymlicka, Multicultural Citizenship: a Liberal eory
for Minority Rights (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995); Will Kymlicka, Liberalism, Com-
munity and Culture (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989).
4
For instance Dominic McGoldrick, Human Rights and Religion: the Islamic headscarf
Debate in Europe (Oxford- Portland, Or.: Hart, 2006).
5
Patricia Londono, Human Rights and Violence against Women (Oxford: Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 2012); Human Rights, Minority Rights, Women’s Rights (Proceedings of
the 19th World Congress of the International Association for Philosophy of Law and
Social Philosophy (IVR), New York, June 24-30, 1999), ed. Alexander Bröstl and Marijan
Pavcnik (Stuttgart: Verlag 2001).
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