This paper contrasts conceptions of global distributive justice focused on natural resources with a human rights-based approach. To highlight the shortcomings of the former and to emphasize the advantages of the latter, the paper looks first at the methodology of moral theorizing, showing that it misconstrues the claims individuals and groups made to natural resources and offers impracticable solutions. Second, I argue that distributive conceptions assume a narrow view of natural resources as economically beneficial goods. Human rights, I propose, are better suited to make sense of the variety of needs natural resources fulfill for humans. In virtue of their legal institutionalization, human rights enable agents to effectively pursue their legitimate claims to resources. Third, I look at the system of sovereignty over natural resources and argue that rather than dismissing it as unjustifiable, it should be reformed in line with the principles which underlie its structure – human rights.
Schlagwort: Human Rights
A short bookreview on Hans G. Kippenberg’s newest book ‚Regulierungen der Religionsfreiheit: Von der Allgemeinen Erklärung der Menschenrechte zu den urteilen des Europäischen Gerichtshofs für Menschenrechte‘ – by Jörg Rüpke
Hans G. Kippenberg, former fellow of the Max Weber Centre has written a book on legal regulations of freedom of religion from 1948 onwards, from the „Universal Declaration of Human Rights“ of 1948 to the „International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights“ of 1966/76. Written with an international perspective, the focus of the book shifts to European developments, the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Commission on Human Rights and the European Court in the second half of the book. Individual cases and legal developments from Italy to the United Kingdom, from Switzerland to Greece and Turkey are analyzed. The historicization of the process is interesting for the history of religion in general as for the problems of religious beliefs, actions, and institutionalizations in urban contexts and urban religion. The book demonstrates the manifold strands and quick changes in the perspectives on and the contents of legal matters, but it also demonstrates how the trace of such texts and court cases produces lasting changes. The historicization of this process from the point of view of History of Religion is a big asset of the book (Hans G. Kippenberg, Regulierungen der Religionsfreiheit: Von der Allgemeinen Erklärung der Menschenrechte zu den urteilen des Europäischen Gerichtshofs für Menschenrechte, Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2019, 190 pp.).