Full Description
The Concept of Group Rights in International Law offers a critical appraisal of the concept of group rights in international law on the basis of an extensive survey of existing group rights in contemporary international law. Among some of its findings is the observation that an ideological way of arguing about this legal category is widespread
among scholars as well as practitioners; it sees this ideological framing as one of the main reasons why international law has so far been very reluctant to provide group rights and to call them by their name. Accordingly, the book re-evaluates the concept based on the experience with existing group rights in international law and pleads for a more pragmatic approach. Despite limitations with the concept, the overall thesis is that there is a role for group rights as a pragmatic tool allowing for a principled approach to substate groups through international law. Such an approach could turn group rights into an arguably minor, but nevertheless, highly relevant legal category of international law.
Contents
Acknowledgements, Table of Cases, Table of Treaties, Declarations and Other Documents, Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Group Rights: Rights, Subjects and Legal Personality
1.1. Rights and Groups as Their Bearers
1.2. The Subjects
1.3. The Concept of Legal Personality
2. 'Group Rights' in Contemporary International Law
2.1. Groups and International Law
2.2. Groups and the Concept of Self-Determination
2.3. Groups and the Concept of Equality and Non-Discrimination in International Law
2.4. Some Concrete Group Rights in International Law
3. Features of Existing Group Rights and Discussions on Group Rights
3.1. Observations Regarding Rights, Subjects and Legal Personality
3.2. Group Rights in Philosophical Debates
3.3. Concluding Remarks
4. Reappraising the Concept of Group Rights in International Law
4.1. Some Key Issues
4.2. Rights: Elements of a Principled Approach of International Law
4.3. Subjects
4.4. Legal Personality as Recognition
4.5 Some Remarks on the Implications
Conclusions, Bibliography, Index.
