This documents includes all relevant information from the readings, knowledge clips and tutorials for the Introduction to Philosophy of Global Law course at Tilburg University for Global Law students.
It serves as a foundation for the course and a good preparation for the exam, as it includes d...
Week 1 – Why Global Law
Legal practice – thinking of the law (applying rules to facts)
Legal philosophy – thinking about the law (thinking in more abstract terms and about abstract
questions, about the nature of law)
Traditional context of law – State sovereignty
Properties of a sovereign state:
Territorial power
o Law of a country is valued within the territory of said country
o Within its territory, the state has the exclusive right to decide on its domestic
affairs
Exclusive power
o The state is politically and legally independent
Highest power
o The state wields the highest power and has the final word on the affairs within its
territory
o Hobbs argued that there must be a highest authority capable of controlling the state
o Each individual must renounce his rights to govern himself for the greater good
o Social contract
Legitimate power
o A legitimate state is one in which also individual sovereignty is respected
Lecture 1 notes:
Why global law?
o Law drives economic globalization
o Globalization raises issues of injustice which require taking human rights (and
democracy and the rule of law) beyond the state
o Thus, it is called to navigate its injustices
o State power, but also the power of private actors, is in need of limitation and
legitimation
Human rights: the “vertical” and “horizontal” effect
o State sovereignty is not universal, but conditional upon the state’s respect of
human rights.
Example: smartphone production
Cobalt mines in the Congo – cobalt is key for production of batteries
o Miners are deep down, workers often have no safety equipment
o Child labour is prominent
o Miners risk injury or death whenever they work to feed their families
Prompts a response – international human rights advocates file lawsuits on behalf of
victims of child labour against tech giants such as Apple and Google
Government of Congo is corrupt – often politicians are paid off to look the other way.
, Infrastructural problems – no mining safety code, no safety inspections or government
regulations.
Humanitarian intervention poses a contradiction to the principle of state sovereignty. The
classic state-centric moral responsibility model holds that they have moral obligations towards
each other because they are citizens of the same country (moral communitarianism). The
universalist model of moral responsibility holds everyone as having moral obligations towards
each other, simply due to our shared humanity (moral universalism).
The legality of humanitarian intervention is contested.
Example: NATO bombings of Serbia 1999
1. Bombings were clearly illegal as per international law
2. International law has to be interpreted according to its moral purpose, the protection of
human rights
3. Bombings were perhaps formally illegal, but they were nevertheless morally necessary
↓
1. Legal positivism: we ought to follow the letter of the law
2. Natural law tradition: law must be morally just
3. Legal realism: formal rules don’t determine action, law-external considerations do
The Three Generations of Human Rights:
, Private, public and collective property:
Speluncean Explorers case:
Truepenny: Legal positivism, the letter of the law should be followed. “The language of our
statute is well known: "Whoever shall willfully take the life of another shall be punished by
death." N. C. S. A. (N. s.) § 12-A. This statute permits of no exception applicable to this case,
however our sympathies may incline us to make allowance for the tragic situation in which
these men found themselves”
Keen: Also legal positivism; disagrees that the court should petition for clemency. Disagrees
that the court has the competence to interpret the purpose of the legislators. “The sole
question before us for decision is whether these defendants did, within the meaning of N. C.
S. A. (N. s.) § 12-A, willfully take the life of Roger Whetmore. The exact language of the
statute is as follows: "Whoever shall willfully take the life of another shall be punished by
death." Now I should suppose that any candid observer, content to extract from these words
their natural meaning, would concede at once that these defendants did "willfully take the
life" of Roger Whetmore.”
Foster: Withdraws from the decision. “A man may break the letter of the law without
breaking the law itself”
1. Legal positivism
a. Law is a set of rules established in a formally valid manner
b. Formal criterion for validity: if it’s promulgated by a competent body, then it
counts as law
c. Strict distinction between law and morals
d. No foundation upon which eternal and immutable norms can be founded
e. Core value: legal certainty
2. Natural law
a. ‘Real law’ is justice; prevailing law is incompletely realized justice.
b. Substantive criterion for validity of law: the law should be just
c. No strict distinction between law and morals
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