Global Law and the New Global Human Community (Direito Global e a Nova Comunidade Global Humana) (original) (raw)
Related papers
A Global Law for a Global Community
In Maciej Dybowski and Rafael García Pérez (eds.). Globalization of Law. The Role of Human Dignity, Cizur Menor: Thomson Reuters Aranzadi, 2018
The international community, under the impact of globalization, is being transformed into a new community made up of new members, inspired by new principles, and based on new ideas. In the first part of this paper, I aim to justify the existence of this emerging community using four arguments that can be summarized by the Latin terms: dignitas, usus, necessitas, and bonum commune. In the second part, I argue that the new global human community comprises persons, not nation-states; that it is universal in nature; that membership in it is compulsory; and that it is incomplete, and complementary to other forms of community. These features of the new global human community will determine both the structure of its legal system and its legal authority. Content: 1. Introduction. 2. Four arguments for the existence of the global human community: a) dignitas; b) usus; c) necessitas; d) bonum commune. 3. Main features of the global human community: a) A political community of persons, not of nation-states; b) A universal community; c) A community of compulsory membership; d) An incomplete community; e) A complementary community. 4. Conclusion.
The New Global Human Community
Chicago Journal of International Law, 2012
Under the impact of globalization, the international community is in the process of evolving into a new community made up of new members, inspired by new principles, and based on new ideas. The first part of this Article aims to justify the existence of this emerging community using four arguments that can be summarized by the Latin terms dignitas, usus, necessitas, and bonum commune. The second part argues that the new global human community has four features: that it comprises persons, not nation-states; that it is universal in nature; that membership in it is compulsory; and that it is incomplete but complementary to other forms of community. These features of the new global human community will determine both the structure of its legal system and its legal authority.
The Human Community and Our Global Social Contract
Abstract. The concept of our ‘human community’ pervades much of the literature and thought of the early 21st century. Yet much of this literature and thought has not yet comprehended the truth that a community cannot be fully realized without genuine democratic law. Democratic world law is not something added to the human community from another tradition or set of ideas. Rather it is intrinsic to the very concept of our human community. Indeed, without democratic world law, the fate of humanity and the Earth is infused with great peril, with the possibility of nuclear holocaust or planetary climate collapse. The ‘great promise’ of this moment in history is found not only in recognition of our human family as one global community. It is also necessarily found in the recognition of the Constitution for the Federation of Earth as the key to a peaceful, just, and sustainable human future.
Cambridge University Press, 2010, reprint, 2012
The dislocations of the worldwide economic crisis, the necessity of a system of global justice to address crimes against humanity, and the notorious “democratic deficit” of international institutions highlight the need for an innovative and truly global legal system – one that permits humanity to reorder itself according to acknowledged global needs and evolving consciousness. A new global law will constitute, by itself, a genuine legal order and will not be limited to a handful of moral principles that attempt to guide the conduct of the world's peoples. If the law of nations served the hegemonic interests of ancient Rome and international law served those of the European nation-state, then a new global law will contribute to the common good of all humanity and, ideally, to the development of durable world peace. This volume offers a historical–juridical foundation for the development of this new global law.
THE IDEA OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY IN THE HISTORY OF INTERNATIONAL LAW
The development of the idea of what now is called the international community is closely linked in the history of the science of international law with the evolution of such concepts as jus gentium, jus naturale, jus ad bellum, and others which themselves might deservedly be the subject of a separate analysis. The purpose of the present Note is to trace the evolution in legal theory of the idea of an international community among the classics of international legal doctrine, turning when necessary to other related theoretical propositions. The need for such an analysis is nourished by the reflection that the contemporary state of affairs in international life is in a crisis or transitional situation. The way out of the situation – in reality and in the theory of international law – may be dictated at least both with the assistance of resolving issues of a value nature and through recourse to the history of international legal doctrine. In any event, these orientations of the study cross, so that issues of philosophy, history, and law here share a common place. The period of the classics in the theory of international law is linked with elaborating base categories, which in and of itself may be a source of resolving many contemporary problems. One task of the present Note is to consider the positions in doctrinal writings, the clarification or critique of which will enable us to move on to other or relatively different levels of generalization. Romans and Post-Glossators.One may begin a history of the idea of an international community with an analysis of the elements thereof in the works of the Roman jurists or postglossators.1Basically, attention is focused in the literature on the theological orientation in the history of international legal doctrines, when within the framework of the so-called " second wave " of scholasticism the Spanish School comes to the forefront. In the view of Jouannet,2 this advance was conditioned by contemporary studies which sought to rehabilitate the mediaeval authors, sometimes excessively modernizing them. Had in the early sixteenth century a polished system on the theoretical plane of an international community been created, particularly in the works of Francisco de Vitoria (1492-1546) and Francisco Suarez (1548-1617)? The question is, of course, rhetorical, and one may speak only at least of the basic contours of the theory of an international community in which there is no place for theocracy or imperialism – the two principal political orientations of their time. The Renaissance, inspired by the Greeks and the Romans and their philosophical and political-legal achievements, strengthened these trends through aspirations for a uniform world community in the Imperial or Papal vision. Both on different grounds developed the idea o an international community from which a more complete theory of an international system arose; that is, communities of national political entities. We speak of them not as nations or States, but as juridical persons of international life that had formed. They are merely certain aspects of an external sovereignty, and concerning independence – with respect to one another and also with respect to some higher authority.
Human Rights: What Possibilities of Universalization?
Humanity & Society, 2018
The history of international law is, to a certain extent, the history of the efforts undertaken to minimize or mitigate the effects of armed conflicts and human suffering. The aim of this article is to discuss the possibilities of an effective universalization of human rights today. It begins by identifying the medieval and humanist antecedents of international law and of what came to be the modern discourse of human rights. The historical data analyzed shed light on how the emergence of an idea of compassion for the Other, without exceptions, did not find sufficient grounds in the religious argument, and how to overcome it was the required condition for perceiving the Other as a similar being in more absolute terms. At the same time, these historical data make it quite clear how such a trajectory is, essentially, European or Western in nature. Then, in the second part of the article, I argue that the adjective “universal” is still inadequate to describe the current situation of hum...