| Special Workshop Title: | Politics of Human Rights - Special Session on Rawls |
| Author: |
K.C. Tan |
| Paper Title: | Nationalism and Cosmopolitanism in The Law of Peoples |
| Abstract: | Although John Rawls explicitly notes that his theory of international justice is not a cosmopolitan one, the principles presented in The Law of Peoples (especially the principles pertaining to human rights and the duty of assistance) suggest that Rawls endorses what some theorists would call a ‘weak cosmopolitan’ position. And although Rawls does not use the term ‘nations’, preferring instead to speak of ‘peoples’, his conception of a people is similar in important ways to that of a nation as understood in some versions of (liberal) nationalism. In this discussion, I wish to explore the cosmopolitan and nationalist ideals implicit in Rawls's law of peoples with the dual aim of explicating Rawls's global commitments and clarifying the complex relationship between nationalism and cosmopolitanism. In particular, I want to examine if The Law of Peoples provides a satisfactory way of reconciling the cosmopolitan and nationalist ideals. |
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