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180Is today's international human rights system a global governance regime?The Journal of Ethics 6 (4): 353-371. 2002.Enthusiasts of the idea of globalization often view international human rights institutions as part of an emerging global governance regime. They claim that these institutions illustrate how state sovereignty is being diminished. This paper looks at the international system for thepromotion and protection of human rights aspart of normative globalization. It arguesthat this system does not constitute a systemof global governance, although in some areas itcomes close.
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120Making Sense of Human Rights: Philosophical Reflections on the Universal Declaration of Human RightsUniversity of California Press. 1987.This fully revised and extended edition of James Nickel's classic study explains and defends the conception of human rights found in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and subsequent human rights treaties. Combining philosophical, legal, and political approaches, Nickel addresses questions about what human rights are, what their content should be, and whether and how they can be justified.
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96Moral Grounds for Economic and Social RightsIn Malcolm Langford (ed.), Oxford Handbook of Economic and Social Rights, Oxford University Press. 2024.This chapter considers possible moral grounds for recognizing and realizing economic and social rights (ESRs) as human rights. It begins by suggesting that ESRs fall into three families: (1) welfareoriented ESRs, which protect adequate income, education, health, and safe and healthful working conditions; (2) freedom-oriented ESRs, which prohibit slavery, ensure free choice of employment, and protect workers’ freedoms to organize and strike: and (3) fairness-oriented ESRs, which require nondiscri…Read more
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66Linkage Arguments for and Against Rights"Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 42 (1): 27-47. 2022.This article is about relations of support and conflict within systems of fundamental legal rights—and the arguments for and against rights that those relations make possible. Justificatory linkage arguments defend controversial rights by claiming that they provide very useful support to the realisation of well-accepted rights. This article analyses such arguments in detail and discusses their structures, uses and pitfalls. It then shows that linkage arguments can be used not just to defend righ…Read more
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57The Value of Cultural Belonging: Expanding Kymlicka's TheoryDialogue 33 (4): 635-. 1994.In his recent book, Liberalism, Community and Culture, Will Kymlicka defends collective rights for some minority groups—and particularly for indigenous peoples in North America—by trying to show that secure cultural belonging is of great value, and rights to protection and autonomy for minorities, including some collective rights, are justified by the special disadvantages some minorities face in enjoying secure cultural membership. Kymlicka defends these claims from within a liberal perspective…Read more
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56Poverty and rightsPhilosophical Quarterly 55 (220). 2005.I defend economic and social rights as human rights, and as a feasible approach to addressing world poverty. I propose a modest conception of economic and social rights that includes rights to subsistence, basic health care and basic education. The second part of the paper defends these three rights. I begin by sketching a pluralistic justificatory framework that starts with abstract norms pertaining to life, leading a life, avoiding severely cruel treatment, and avoiding severe unfairness. I ar…Read more
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52Can a right to health care be justified by linkage arguments?Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 37 (4): 293-306. 2016.Linkage arguments, which defend a controversial right by showing that it is indispensable or highly useful to an uncontroversial right, are sometimes used to defend the right to health care. This article evaluates such arguments when used to defend RHC. Three common errors in using linkage arguments are neglecting levels of implementation, expanding the scope of the supported right beyond its uncontroversial domain, and giving too much credit to the supporting right for outcomes in its area. A f…Read more
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44Pluralism, Justice, and EqualityPhilosophical Review 106 (1): 127. 1997.This is an excellent collection of critical essays on Michael Walzer’s Spheres of Justice. David Miller provides a comprehensive and lucid introduction to Walzer’s views on justice, and Walzer offers a brief—perhaps too brief—response to his critics. Contributors are drawn from philosophy, political science, and sociology, and include Judith Andre, Richard Arneson, Brian Barry, Joseph Carens, Jon Elster, Amy Gutmann, David Miller, Susan Moller Okin, Michael Rustin, Adam Swift, and Jeremy Waldron…Read more
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42A Defense of Welfare Rights as Human RightsIn Thomas Christiano & John Christman (eds.), Contemporary Debates in Political Philosophy, Wiley‐blackwell. 2009.This chapter contains sections titled: The Vance Conception of Economic and Social Rights Justifying Economic and Social Rights Implementing Economic and Social Rights The Widespread Acceptance of Economic and Social Rights Note References.
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37Winner of The Philosophical Quarterly Essay Prize 2004: Poverty and RightsPhilosophical Quarterly 55 (220). 2005.I defend economic and social rights as human rights, and as a feasible approach to addressing world poverty. I propose a modest conception of economic and social rights that includes rights to subsistence, basic health care and basic education. The second part of the paper defends these three rights. I begin by sketching a pluralistic justificatory framework that starts with abstract norms pertaining to life, leading a life, avoiding severely cruel treatment, and avoiding severe unfairness. I ar…Read more
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34Equal Opportunity in a Pluralistic Society: JAMES W. NICKELSocial Philosophy and Policy 5 (1): 104-119. 1987.The United States has never been culturally or religiously homogeneous, but its diversity has greatly increased over the last century. Although the U.S. was first a multicultural nation through conquest and enslavement, its present diversity is due equally to immigration. In this paper I try to explain the difference it makes for one area of thought and policy – equal opportunity – if we incorporate cultural and religious pluralism into our national self-image. Formulating and implementing a pol…Read more
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27Review of MacCallum, Marcus G. Singer and Rex Martin: Legislative Intent and Other Essays on Law, Politics, and Morality. (review)Ethics 106 (2): 466-467. 1996.
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26Relativism, self-determination and human rightsIn Deen Chatterjee (ed.), Democracy in a Global World, Rowman&littlefield. 2008.
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26Should Undocumented Aliens Be Entitled to Health Care?Hastings Center Report 16 (6): 19-23. 1986.Congress recently decided that undocumented aliens are ineligible for medical benefits under the 1966 Medicaid Act, overruling a judicial decision that would have required the federal government to reimburse states partially for the costs of providing free care. Is providing such care simply a matter of prudence and charity? Or do illegal aliens have strong moral claims to medical care that generate duties for hospitals and government agencies?
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25Multicultural Citizenship: A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights (review)Journal of Philosophy 93 (9): 480-482. 1996.
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25What Future for Human Rights?Ethics and International Affairs 28 (2): 213-223. 2014.Like people born shortly after World War II, the international human rights movement recently had its sixty-fifth birthday. This could mean that retirement is at hand and that death will come in a few decades. After all, the formulations of human rights that activists, lawyers, and politicians use today mostly derive from the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the world in 1948 was very different from our world today: the cold war was about to break out, communism was a strong and opt…Read more
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24Bibliography: A bibliography on the nature and foundations of rights, 1947-1977Political Theory 6 (3): 395-413. 1978.
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23Does Basing Rights on Autonomy Imply Obligations of Political Allegiance?Dialogue 28 (4): 531-. 1989.Charles Taylor's well-known essay, “Atomism”, criticizes libertarian theories of rights like Nozick's that make individual rights independent of any duties to belong to, support, or obey the law in the society in which those rights are to be enjoyed. Taylor argues that if one grounds rights to important liberties on the human capacity for autonomy, this commits one to the view that the development of autonomy in oneself and others is morally obligatory. Further, Taylor argues that most people ca…Read more
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Areas of Interest
Value Theory |
Other Academic Areas |