Globalization, Violence and World Governance

In this work Laura Westra draws our attention to the failure of international law to promote and protect the rights of society in the face of the ravages of neoliberal agendas in an era of globalization. This book outlines how international law is perhaps a misnomer, and at its core there is a great distance between laws as they are written and laws as they are implemented. Each chapter in this volume peels back the illusions of laws as instruments designed to protect the public welfare, and shows how the intersection of globalization and neoliberal democracy has stripped people of their dignity, has violated human rights, has resulted in ecological disaster, all for the singular goal of profit and in the name of so-called economic rationality. Westra demonstrates how documents like national constitutions, with its eloquent language on the rights of its citizens, are cast aside when it comes to defending those rights. Calling international law a failed enterprise, the heart of this book explores how we may yet reconstruct a true system of international rights enforced by real international laws, and contemplates the limitations and possibilities of international organizations to effectively address truly international problems. Through the lens of what might be called a political ecology Westra offers us a call for action to protect our environments and indeed our selves.

Laura Westra, Ph.D. (1982) in Philosophy, University of Toronto, and Ph.D. (2005) in Law, Osgoode Hall Law School, currently teaches environmental law at the University of Windsor. She has published twenty-two monographs and collections on environmental justice and human rights issues and international law, and over 80 articles and chapters.

"This is a provocative contribution to a very current debate."
Anne Peters, Universität Basel

“The growing frustration with collapsing ecosystems and dysfunctional governments make it timely to search for a bold alternative. This book delivers. The analysis is compelling, the call for world governance convincing. I don’t know of anyone who brings philosophical scholarship more forcefully into international law than Laura Westra.”
Klaus Bosselmann, University of Auckland