Theory of Needs as Justification of Human Rights: Current Approaches and Problems of Uncertainty and Normativeness
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17561/tahrj.n10.1Keywords:
Human rights, needs, basic needs, justification, natural law, normativenessAbstract
This paper deals with the theory of needs as a possible justification of human rights. First, it defines the concept of need, which differs from the concept of want. It states that need is, by definition, objective in nature. The paper then analyses some concepts of need (especially those of David Miller and Massimo Renzo) and examines their advantages and disadvantages in relation to justification theories (for example James Griffin's approach which is based on the idea of normative agency). According to the author, these concepts have natural-law foundations and cannot deal, in particular, with the problem of transition from facts to norms. In addition, the requirements that we usually derive from needs retain too much uncertainty. In spite of these shortcomings, using them as arguments in law and even more in politics retains a great convincing power. Its sources are difficult to identify, however, it is an important concept we use in everyday life (though in a shifted meaning). Finally, the author concludes that although needs are not able to establish human rights in a satisfactory way – provided we renounce the universal nature of these rights – they can play a very useful and important role in justifying them in certain local contexts.
References
• ANDERSSON, Anna-Karin Margareta, 2012. Choices, Interests, and Potentiality. What Distinguishes Bearers of Rights? p. 176.
• BROZ, Jan and Pavel ONDŘEJEK, 2016. Pluralita dimenzí základních práv v současném státě. In: KYSELA, Jan; Pavel ONDŘEJEK et al. Kolos na hliněných nohou? K proměnám státu a jeho rolí. Prague: Leges, p. 202.
• CRUFT, Rowan; S. Matthew LIAO, and Massimo RENZO (eds.), 2015. Philosophical Foundations of Human Rights. 1st Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. xii, 702.
• DONNELLY, Jack, 1982. Human Rights and Human Dignity: An Analytic Critique of Non-Western Conceptions of Human Rights. The American Political Science Review. 76 (2), p 313.
• DONNELLY, Jack, 2007. The Relative Universality of Human Rights. Human Rights Quarterly. 29 (2), pp. 282 – 313.
• EDMUNDSON, William A, 2008. An Introduction to Rights. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012, s. 73. IVISON, Duncan. Rights. Stocksfield: Acumen, pp. 11 et seq.
• FABRE, Cécile, 1998. Constitutionalising Social Rights. The Journal of Political Philosophy. 6 (3), pp. 273 – 275.
• FLOYD, Rita, 2011. Why We Need Needs-Based Justification of Human Rights. Journal of International Political Theory. 7 (1), pp. 103 – 115.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3366/jipt.2011.0008
• FREEMAN, Michael, 1994. The Philosophical Foundations of Human Rights. Human Rights Quarterly. 16 (3), pp. 505 et seq.
• FREEMAN, Michael, 2004. The Problem of Secularism in Human Rights Theory. Human Rights Quarterly. 26 (2), p. 392.
• FREDMAN, Sandra, 2008. Human Rights Transformed. Positive Rights and Positive Duties. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 3 et seq.
• GRIFFIN, James, 2008. On Human Rights. 1st ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 4 – 90.
• GUTMANN, Amy, 2003. Introduction. In: IGNATIEFF, Michael. Human Rights as Politics and Idiolatry. Princeton University Press.
• HAPLA, Martin, 2016. Lidská práva bez metafyziky: legitimita v (post)moderní době. Brno: Masaryk University.
• KOHEN, Ari, 2005. The Possibility of Secular Human Rights: Alan Gewirth and the Principle of Generic Consistency. Human Rights Review. 7 (1), pp. 49 – 75.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12142-005-1002-3
• KOLLER, Peter, 1997. The Scope of Human Rights. In: KRAWIETZ, Werner, PATTARO, Enrico; ERH-SOON TAY, Alice (eds.). Rule of Law. Political and Legal Systems in Transition. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, p. 255.
• KYSELA, Jan, 2014. Ústava mezi právem a politikou: úvod do ústavní teorie. Prague: Leges, p. 258.
• MACMILLAN, C. Michael, 1986. Social versus Political Rights. Canadian Journal of Political Science / Revue canadienne de science politique. 19 (2), p. 288.
• MCCLOSKEY, H. J., 1976. Human Needs, Rights and Political Values. American Philosophical Quarterly. 13 (1).
• MILLER, David, 2007. National Responsibility and Global Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 179 – 187.
• MILLER, David, 2012. Grounding Human Rights. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy. 15 (4), pp. 3 and 409 – 422.
• NEUMANN, Michael, 1992. Needs Not Rights. Canadian Journal of Philosophy, pp. 353 – 354.
• NICKEL, James W., 2007. Making Sense of Human Rights. Malden, MA; Oxford: Blackwell Pub, p. 1.
• NUSSBAUM, Martha C., 1997. Capabilities and Human Rights. Fordham Law Review, pp. 276-300.
• NUSSBAUM, Martha C., 2011. Creating Capabilities. The Human Development Approach. Cambridge, London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, p. 18-34.
• ONDŘEJEK, Pavel, 2013. Several remarks on the legal aspects of human rights. In: ŠTURMA, Pavel (ed.). Pojem a teorie lidských práv. Prague: Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Law, p. 28.
• ONDŘEJEK, Pavel, 2017. The Many Faces of Human Dignity in Law. 2017, manuscript, p. 2.
• POSNER, Eric A, 2014. The Twilight of Human Rights Law. New York: Oxford University Presspp. 6 – 7.
• RAZ, Joseph, 2010. Human Rights without Foundations. In: BESSON, Samantha; TASIOULAS, John (eds.). The Philosophy of International Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 325.
• RENZO, Massimo, 2015. Human Needs, Human Rights. In: CRUFT, Rowan; S. Matthew LIAO, and Massimo RENZO (eds.). Philosophical Foundations of Human Rights. 1st Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 572 – 587.
• RORTY, Richard, 1999. Human Rights, Rationality and Sentimentality. In: SAVIĆ, Obrad et al. The Politics of Human Rights. London: Versop. 739.
• SCHROEDER, Doris, 2012. Human Rights and Human Dignity. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice. 15 (3), pp. 332 et seq.
• SHUE, Henry, 1980. Basic Rights. Subsistence, Affluence and U.S. Foreign Policy. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, pp. 52 et seq.
• STAMMERS, Neil, 1995. A Critique of Social Approaches to Human Rights. Human Rights Quarterly. 17 (3), p. 496.
• STEWART, Frances, 1985. Planning to Meet Basic Needs. London and Basingstoke: The Macmillan Press, pp. 1-5.
• STEWART, Frances, 1989. Basic Needs Strategies, Human Rights, and the Right to Development. Human Rights Quarterly. 11 (3), pp. 348 – 368.
• WALDRON, Jeremy, 2000. The Role of Rights in Practical Reasoning: "Rights" versus "Needs". The Journal of Ethics. 4 (1/2), pp. 116 – 129.
• WELLMAN, Carl, 2011. The Moral Dimensions of Human Rights. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, p. v.
• WIGGINS, David, 1998. Needs, Values, Truth. Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 6-17.
• ZETTERBAUM, Marvin, 1977. Equality and Human Need. The American Political Science Review. 71 (3), pp. 988 – 990.
