Human Rights

International law has evolved to protect human rights. But what are human rights? Does the term have the same meaning in a world being transformed by climate change and globalized trade? Are existing laws sufficient to ensure humanity’s survival?

Drawing on case law and practice and examples from philosophy, law, and ecology, Laura Westra argues that the current system is not adequate: international law privileges individual over collective rights, permitting multinational corporations to overlook the collectivity and the environment in their quest for wealth and power. Unless policy makers redefine human rights and reformulate environmental law and policies to protect the preconditions for life itself -- water, food, clean air, and biodiversity -- humankind faces the complete loss of the ecological commons, the preservation of which is one of our most basic human rights. A new kind of cosmopolitanism, one centred on the United Nations, offers the best hope for preserving our common heritage and the survival of future generations.

This book raises critical issues that have largely been ignored or deliberately repressed in mainstream debates concerning the dynamics of global ecological and geopolitical change.

Prue Taylor, School of Architecture and Planning, University of Auckland:
A key feature of this book is that it deals with both moral and legal arguments. It also draws on Greek philosophy. This reflects the author’s strength as a scholar of both philosophy and law. There are few authors in the environmental and international law fields that can bring this breadth of material and thought to bear on such a critical subject.