Search for European Projects

Sovereigns as Trustees of Humanity: The Obligations of Nations in an Era of Global Interdependence (GlobalTrust)
Start date: Mar 1, 2013, End date: Feb 28, 2018 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Should sovereign governments be accountable only to their citizens or should they also consider the welfare of foreign stakeholders? Traditional doctrines on state sovereignty and citizenship offer a generally negative answer: Absent a specific, voluntarily accepted, treaty-based commitment, sovereign governments usually have no obligation to weigh foreigners’ interests. This traditional vision conceptualizes sovereigns as Janus-faced: Their public face is for domestic stakeholders to whom they are accountable and to whom they owe negative and positive obligations, and their private face is for all other stakeholders to whom their only obligation is the negative one of not inflicting a set of narrowly defined harms. The aim of this project is to revisit this Janus-faced concept of responsibility and to explore broader alternatives and their ramifications. This study will examine the scope of obligations sovereign governments currently have toward foreign stakeholders and humanity at large and will analyze the normative desirability and political feasibility of potential alternative strategies for enhancing sovereign accountability to non-citizens and promoting a more democratic, sustainable, and egalitarian management of public life and scarce global resources. This project will systematically review the extent to which current law (international law and comparative constitutional law) and institutions already regard sovereigns as public authorities accountable to foreign stakeholders. More specifically, this project will apply the general insights to examine the necessary and possible legal and institutional responses to climatic changes in an era of erratic and extreme weather conditions.

Looking for a partnership?
Have a look at
Ma Région Sud!
https://maregionsud.up2europe.eu

Details