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Is there really a "global human rights deficit"? Consequentialist liability and cosmopolitan alternatives

Meckled-Garcia, Saladin; (2013) Is there really a "global human rights deficit"? Consequentialist liability and cosmopolitan alternatives. In: Brock, G, (ed.) Cosmopolitanism versus Non-Cosmopolitanism. Oxford University Press: Oxford, United Kingdom. Green open access

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Abstract

The chapter criticizes the claim that the global economic order systematically violates human rights, and is in fact responsible a "global human rights deficit". The critique is dismantled by showing that a) the concepts of culpability and liability for bad systemic effects employed by cosmopolitan authors, like Pogge, are deeply flawed, and b) that on a more plausible reading of liability and culpability (one focusing on agency and reasonableness of choices that might, taken collectively, impose losses or risks, there is no candidate agent of violation at the global level. The claim that the global economic order 'violates human rights' is at most a metaphor. Candidate agents of violation and their effects are considered - these include finance institutions, states, and the background rules of international law that give privileges to states. For each, the absence of the relevant kind of agency for culpability for systemic global poverty is demonstrated. The paper contributes to discussions on the nature of collective agency, culpability, and the nature of complicity.

Type: Book chapter
Title: Is there really a "global human rights deficit"? Consequentialist liability and cosmopolitan alternatives
ISBN: 0199678421
ISBN-13: 9780199678426
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords: Political Science, human rights; global economic order; violations; critique of cosmopolitanism; critique of Pogge; systemic violations; responsibility; liability; culpability, complicity; collective agency; collective violation; human rights and wrongs; sytsemic poverty; systemic effects.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Political Science
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1400440
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