Free standard shipping on all orders

The Rights of Strangers: Theories of International Hospitality, the Global Community and Political Justice since Vitoria book cover

1st Edition

The Rights of Strangers Theories of International Hospitality, the Global Community and Political Justice since Vitoria

By Georg Cavallar Copyright 2002
    430 Pages
    by Routledge

    This study investigates the thinking of European authors from Vitoria to Kant about political justice, the global community, and the rights of strangers as one special form of interaction among individuals of divergent societies, political communities, and cultures. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, it covers historical material from a predominantly philosophical perspective, interpreting authors who have tackled problems related to the rights of strangers under the heading of international hospitality. Their analyses of the civitas maxima or the societas humani generis covered the nature of the global commonwealth. Their doctrines of natural law (ius naturae) were supposed to provide what we nowadays call theories of political justice. The focus of the work is on international hospitality as part of the law of nations, on its scope and justification. It follows the political ideas of Francisco de Vitoria and the Second Scholastic in the 16th century, of Alberico Gentili, Hugo Grotius, Samuel Pufendorf, Christian Wolff, Emer de Vattel, Johann Jacob Moser, and Immanuel Kant. It draws attention to the international dimension of political thought in Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, David Hume, Adam Smith, and others. This is predominantly a study in intellectual history which contextualizes ideas, but also emphasizes their systematic relevance.

    Contents: Foreword; Introduction; The present and the past: Iustitia, cosmopolis and hospitalitas: Issues of international ethics and law; Political and cultural contexts: globalization, modern, postmodern and anti-postmodern confusions; Intellectual history: objectivity, methodology and the dialogical approach; Iustitia: moral minimalism and political justice; Cosmopolis: ancient and medieval foundations; Hospitalitas: interaction, commerce and trade; Vitoria and the Second Scholastic: European colonialism and Amerindian rights; Natural law and human rights; Vitoria’s lecture ’On the American Indians’; Vitoria’s law of nations as a theory of political justice; The problem of humanitarian intervention; The right of hospitality; An assessment of Vitoria’s achievement; The Age of Hugo Grotius: Beyond scepticism: a modern theory of natural rights; Justice or consent?; The ’great society of states’ and the law of nations; The ocean as common property and ’the sacrosanct law of hospitality’; The contributions of Francisco Suárez and Alberico Gentili; The Grotian legacy and the origins of modern international law; In the Shadow of Leviathan: Hobbes to Wolff: Hobbes on the state of nature and sovereignty; The domestic analogy; Pufendorf I: the society of states; Pufendorf II: the imperfect right of hos pitality; Wolff: civitas maxima, or the universal commonwealth; Wolff II: international hospitality qualified; Contextualizing theory: state practice and hospitality rights; The Age of Enlightenment: Natural law, history, sociability and commercial society: Pufendorf to Smith; The failure of conquest, agriculture, hospitality and free trade; The attack on and transformation of natural law; La société générale du genre humain: Rousseau on cosmopolitanism, international relations and republican patriotism; The synthesis of natural law and state practice: Vattel and Moser; Kant and the Ius Cosmopoliticum: Revolution and synthesis; Kant’s global commonwe

    Biography

    Georg Cavallar

    'This is a fascinating, at times brilliant book...Georg Cavallar demonstrates a command of the wider context of classical international political theory ” classical and modern ” that is pretty much unrivalled in the contemporary literature... remarkable... I doubt if there is anyone working in the field of international political theory today who could not learn a great deal from this book....(it) is packed with stimulating re-readings and fascinating mini-case-studies... a very good book...' History of Political Thought 'Cavallar goes beyond simple intellectual history in his willingness to embrace the sceptical challenge to ethical theorizing. He uses historical scholarship to illumine the recurring character of the thick/thin debate about conceptions of political justice... The Rights of Strangers is a very rich text in which Cavallar combines philosophical and ethical analysis, intellectual history and critical reflection on methodology. It is original in both content and in aim, bringing astute historical and philosophical scholarship to bear on important issues of contemporary concern.' Kantian Review '... articulate and insightful...' Leiden Journal of International Law
    Add to Cart