10. The Universal Concept of Human Rights as a Regulative Principle: Freedom Versus Paternalism

This essay examines the current debates regarding the politics of human rights. The universal concept of human rights is considered as a regulative principle for the possible critique of any state, including a democratic one. Moreover, the philosophical justification of the universal regulative principle for evaluating these states is vital for progressive political change and for the politics of human rights. At the heart of the analysis is Kant's concept of human rights as freedom. It is opposed to a more utilitarian interpretation of rights and political paternalism. Kant's philosophy helps us to better understand the meaning of the definition of human rights as inherent, sacred, and inalienable, as formulated by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence. Kant makes these meanings explicit, and he elaborates on the moral-philosophical explanations of humanitarian rights. His philosophy of law was developed in a process of a systematic criticism of political paternalism (which is the flip side of dependence). Kant developed his definition of individual freedom in opposition to authoritarian paternalism, utilitarian arbitrariness, and the "despotism of paternalistic benevolence." The categorical imperative is threefold: the imperatives of morality, right, and peace. Thus it could be interpreted as "the categorical imperative of peace." The analysis shows the ongoing relevance of Kant's ideas and their recent development by the theorists of "discourse ethics" and of "cosmopolitan democracy." It affirms that the solution to the problems of securing peace and protecting human rights can only be achieved by peaceful means, based on the international rule of law.     

1. Globalization and Violence: The Challenge to Ethics

Despite its many benefits, globalization has proven to harbor a good deal of violence. This is not only a matter of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction inaugurated by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, but includes many forms of indirect or “structural violence” resulting from the routine of economic and political institutions on the global scale. In this essay, the multifaceted phenomena of violence are approached from the standpoint of ethics. The prevailing political thinking associated with “realism” fails to address the problems of militarism and of hegemonic unilateralism. In contrast, many philosophers are critically rethinking the problem of global violence from different ethical perspectives. Despite sharing similar concerns, philosophers nevertheless differ over the role of philosophical reflection and the potentials of reason. These differences appear in two contrasting approaches associated with postmodern philosophy and discourse ethics. In the analysis of discourse ethics, attention is paid to Karl‐Otto Apel's attempt of philosophically grounding a macroethics of planetary co‐responsibility. At the heart of the essay is the analysis of the problem of violence, including terrorism, by Jürgen Habermas, who explains the phenomenon of violence in terms of the theory of communicative action as the breakdown of communication. Jacques Derrida's deconstruction of the notion of “terrorism” also is analyzed. According to the principle of discourse ethics, all conflicts between human beings ought to be settled in a way free of violence, through discourses and negotiations. These philosophers conclude that the reliance on force does not solve social and global problems, including those that are the source of violence. The only viable alternative is the “dialogical” multilateral relations of peaceful coexistence and cooperation among the nations for solving social and global problems. They emphasize the necessity of strengthening the international rule of law and institutions, such as a reformed United Nations.     

4 Human Rights, Global Justice, and Disaggregated States: John Rawls, Onora O'Neill, and Anne-Marie Slaughter

A bstract .   Human rights are urgently important rights that all individual persons may validly claim and that all governments are obligated to respect. According to some philosophers, no government can plausibly claim legitimate authority unless its legal and political system ascribes such rights, and no society can plausibly claim to be just unless it has a legitimate government. John Rawls presents his own version of this conception in the context of his account of the moral basis of a just global system of public law, which he calls the Law of Peoples. According to some of his critics, including Onora O'Neill, not only is the Law of Peoples statist, but also it relies on a false view of the state. O'Neill has developed a new conception of an ideally just global order in which states have fewer, and corporations more, powers and obligations to secure human rights, in contrast to Rawls's conception. Her conception is consistent with Anne-Marie Slaughter's account of the transformation of state sovereignty due to globalization. However, contrary to initial appearances, it is not the case that O'Neill's and Slaughter's views taken together require significant modification of Rawls's conception of human rights. There is no fundamental conflict between Rawls's conception of human rights and Slaughter's account of state transformation. And O'Neill's criticisms of Rawls's view are unwarranted.     

3. The Holocaust Sublime: Singularity, Representation, and the Violence of Everyday Life

It has become common to view mass historical traumas like the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki or the Holocaust as singularities —in other words, events of such transcendent, almost metaphysical significance that they exceed intelligibility. Siding with "realist" intellectuals who instead emphasize the rootedness of genocide in the structures of modernity and everyday life, I argue that the discourse of singularity aestheticizes historical trauma in problematic ways. Drawing on Kant's analytic of the sublime, in which the subject, in confronting an awesome or terrifying phenomenon from a position of safety, comes to realize his or her own powers of transcendence and moral superiority, I argue that the holocaust sublime encourages the viewing subject to "face" overwhelming horrors of the past, but without having to confront the subject's actual responsibility for the atrocities of the present. By pitting the extraordinary or "singular" against the banal and everyday, the holocaust sublime thus obscures, rather than reveals, the habits of thought and social structures that make genocidal practices inevitable.     

Balancing Civil Rights With Safety at Work: Workplace Violence and the ADA

Workplace violence has become an increasingly common occurrence in recent years. During the years 1992–1996, there were over 5,000 job-related homicides in the United States, and in 1996 alone there were 1,364 nonfatal assaults committed by coworkers or former coworkers. Although it would be both inaccurate and inappropriate to suggest that these acts have generally been committed by persons suffering from severe emotional and mental disorders, this is clearly one of the possible explanations. In light of these facts and given the recent Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's Guidance on the Americans with Disabilities Act and Psychiatric Disabilities, the obligations and prerogatives of employers in terms of hiring and posthiring actions need to be discussed. This paper examines the legal issues, the EEOC's Guidance, and offers specific suggestions for developing an effective hiring process, as well as methods to use when dealing with current employees who pose a threat of violence because of mental and emotional disorders.     

人权语境下的穷人居住权审视

穷人的居住权,其实质是关于住房的制度安排能否取得利益表达和社会稳定间的平衡.基于"居住权是基本人权"命题时于穷人的生存权意义,必须切实解决穷人的居住这个最基本的民生问题.既不"经济"又不"适用"的经济适用房并不具备对于穷人应有的道德关怀,应着力构建真正适于穷人的廉租房机制.     

我国妇女权益法律保护综述——以反家庭暴力法为视角

妇女权益是妇女作为人所有的和应当享有的权利。为了使妇女权益更加具体、规范,16年3月国家颁布和实施了我国第一部反家庭暴力法。这部法律对保护妇女权益做了更加细致的规定,但妇女权益的保护应与国家发展同步,以营造有利于妇女全面发展的社会环境。本文在比较了英美国家、香港、台湾地区反家庭暴力法中对妇女权益的保护,分析了我国反家庭暴力法的不足,为进一步全面保护妇女权益提出建议。     

10 The Subject of Freedom at the End of History: Socialism Beyond Humanism

A bstract .   The postmodernist turn in theory left the status of humanism in some doubt. This chapter argues that a recuperation of a specifically socialist humanism is both possible and desirable, but only by overcoming the anthropocentrism of radical humanism. Renaissance and Enlightenment conceptions of the subject were rooted in an untenable dichotomy between the human and the animal, in ways that vitiated the idea and ideal of universal freedom. By conflating subjectivity as such with human subjectivity, humanism created a diremption in the world that placed the knower (human consciousness) on one side, and the merely known (objectified Nature) on the other. Marxism and socialist humanism reproduced this error in ways that have undermined the socialist vision of universal emancipation, misconstrued the nature of the subject, and overlooked the significance of human domination of other animals. The author advocates a new approach, what he calls metahumanism , to affirm a "two-sided" freedom in which the liberation of other animals from human oppression, and the emancipation of ourselves as animals—that is, the restoration of the sensual dimension of existence, free sexual expression, and valorization of the labor and love of the body—would become central features of a new movement for civil and cultural reform.     

The American Pot and the Chinese Kettle: Joining Forces for Human Rights

A bstract NO nation is a virtuoso when it comes to human rights performance In its representations to China, the United States takes stronger action against violations of "intellectual property" rights (in the form of CDs and trade marks) than against violations of freedom of speech and person For its part, China complains about economic inequality in the U.S., but justifies Tiananmen Square with the elusive claim that social harmony is a greater good than free speech.
Both sides believe they have a commitment to human rights Each has something to say to the other, but neither is listening very hard. This article suggests what they might listen for first, the legitimacy of claims of both sides in light of the emerging international consensus on human rights; second, the complaints that each side registers against the other on the basis of those claims, and finally, the likely influence each side can exercise on the other through international actions     

Increasing Returns and the Growth of Industries in the EU Regions: Paradoxes and Conundrums

Abstract

Verdoorn's law is estimated in a spatial econometric framework for individual manufacturing industries using EU regional data. Estimates of encompassing returns to scale are large, but other explanatory variables, including measures of industrial specialization and diversity, tend to be insignificant. The method of normalization with either output or input growth as the regressor matters, and the use of an instrumental variable approach does not resolve this problem. As in other studies, the static-dynamic Verdoorn law paradox exists. A theoretical argument is made, however, that the dynamic Verdoorn law is the correct specification and this is confirmed empirically.

Rendements croissants et croissance des industries dans les régions de l'UE: paradoxes et énigmes

Résumé La loi de Verdoorn est estimée dans un cadre conceptuel économétrique spatial pour les industries de fabrication individuelles en utilisant des données régionales de l'UE. Les estimations des rendements croissants à l’échelle, englobant, sont importantes, mais d'autres variables explicatives, comprenant des mesures de spécialisation et de diversité industrielles, ont tendance à être insignifiantes. La méthode de normalisation utilisant comme variable indépendante soit la croissance d'entrée soit celle de sortie importe, et l'utilisation d'une approche IV ne résout pas ce problème. Comme dans d'autres études, le paradoxe statique-dynamique de la loi de Verdoorn est présent. Cependant, dans un argument théorique, nous avançons que la loi de Verdoorn dynamique est la spécification correcte, ce qui est confirmé empiriquement.

Aumento de las ganancias y crecimiento de la industria en las regiones de la UE: paradojas y acertijos

Résumén Se estima la Ley de Verdoorn en un marco econométrico espacial para empresas manufactureras individuales usando los datos regionales de la UE. Las estimaciones para las ganancias englobadas a escala son grandes, pero otras variables explicativas, incluyendo las medidas de especialización y diversidad industrial, tienden a ser insignificantes. Importa el método de normalización ya sea usando crecimiento de ganancias o entradas como regressor, y el uso de un enfoque IV no resuelve este problema. Al igual que en otros estudios existe la paradoja estática-dinámica de la ley de Verdoorn. Sin embargo, se argumenta teóricamente que la dinámica ley de Verdoorn es la especificación correcta y esto se confirma empíricamente.

     

A Response to the British Journal of Industrial Relations Symposium on the Human Rights Watch Report: A Minimum Program for Promoting Collective Bargaining Rights as a Human Right

The publication of Unfair Advantage, a report published by Human Rights Watch (HRW), documents and analyzes how employers routinely violate international human rights standards by depriving U.S. workers of their legal right to organize. In a recent symposium on Unfair Advantage published in the British Journal of Industrial Relations, 7 essays analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of the HRW report from a variety of ideological and theoretical perspectives. Although the scholars who wrote these essays raised a number of important issues concerning Unfair Advantage, they failed to provide any concrete or practical methodologies for using this report to promote the collective bargaining rights of U.S. workers in the early years of the twenty-first century. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to critique these symposium papers as well as to propose a minimum program, on the basis of Unfair Advantage, for advancing the collective bargaining rights of U.S. workers.     

农民工社会保障的人权维度分析

庞德认为,权利的本质就是一种合理的期望。农民工社会保障权就是这样一种合理的期望,最初是作为应用权利存在的,是人权最初和最完整的形态。本文旨从应然逻辑出发,从平等权、生存权、发展权三个人权维度视阈,具体考量和剖析农民工社会保障权的正当性、合理性与现实性。     

企业人力资本产权界定问题探讨——基于人本投资视角的分析

本文从人本投资视角出发,对企业人力资本产权界定的四个相关问题进行分析与论证。分析论证得出结论:在企业生产经营中,人力资本占主导地位,支配并雇佣物力资本共同构成生产力;人力资本产权是一组权利,包括所有权、使用权、支配权、收益权,核心是所有权和收益权;人力资本的所有权应该归作为自然人和企业投资人的员工个人所有;人力资本的使用权和支配权可以在一定程度、一定范围内以契约交易形式转移给企业。     

光与影的交织——光影艺术在室内空间中的演绎与表达

室内空间是人们生活环境的主体,光影艺术是在人们认知和体验室内空间过程中最重要的介质之一。光与影是并存的,光影艺术可以为诗意浪漫的空间塑造起到烘托与推动作用,也影响和体现着人们对室内空间与环境关系的认识与感触,是联系人、室内空间、环境并使之融为一体的重要催化剂。因而,如何处理好光影效果,并且最终达到照明效果及具有审美价值的光影艺术,已然成为空间视觉设计中不得不重视的问题。     

机器学习在人力资源管理领域中的应用研究

本研究关注的是机器学习在人力资源管理领域的应用,通过目前已有研究的梳理,以了解在人力资源管理领域中人工智能/机器学习的应用程度和研究热点。同时,基于管理实践,本研究提出了人力资源管理者如何利用算法,以有价值的方式处理和解释数据,将其真正应用于人力资源管理的六大模块工作中,以降低管理成本,提供不断增长的优势和潜力。最后,在现有学术研究和管理实践的基础上,本研究列举了机器学习在人力资源管理领域应用可能面临的挑战,以及未来的研究方向,以期为后续的研究提供一定的参考。     

Applying human rights standards to employment rights in the USA: The Human Rights Watch Report 2000

This essay reviews the international human rights standards that the Human Rights Watch Report uses as standards for judgment, summarises with some commentary the Report’s major findings and recommendations, comments more fully on certain findings and recommendations, and, in conclusion, raises several issues that need to be addressed given the state of freedom of association and other related human rights in the USA.     

Developing the Modern Leader: Integrating Creativity and Innovation in the Mentor–Protégé Relationship

Mentoring has been identified as a key component to the development of leaders. Some of the most successful leaders in today's constantly evolving organizations rely heavily on creativity and innovation to drive their focus and action. The current brief paper will explore provoking ideas exploring the integration of creativity and innovation in the mentoring relationship to help better prepare and mold current and future leaders in all types of organizations.