Reframing Rights from the Ground Up: The Contribution of the New U.N. Law of Self-Determination to Recovering the Principle of Sociability on the Way to a Relational Theory of International Human Rights

Abstract

The Dutch lawyer and theologian Hugo Grotius had a vision of “true international society” in his “principle of sociability.” This article argues looks at the ongoing emergence of recognition for international human rights with this vision of Grotius in mind. The author argues that (1) the idea of human rights is already in the process of being reframed through the concrete practice of rights talk on the ground in the development of the new U.N. law of self-determination; (2) this important development is reflected in the theories of scholars currently writing about the right to self-determination; and (3) these developments invite us to construct a relational theory of human rights by taking the principle of internal relations of Process Thought seriously as a way to recover Grotius’ principle of sociability as originally envisioned 350 years ago.

Keywords: Process Though, Douglas Sturm, human rights, U.N., self-determination, Grotius, sociability

JEL Classification: O34, K00