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Morality—Ideology—Objectivity: The Pre- and Post-juridical Dimension of Human Rights in the Era of Digitisation and Artificial Intelligence

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Human Rights in a Changing World

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Abstract

It is an endless debate, and it is one that will surely not come to an end with the following. The fact of being a never-ending-story is in fact part and parcel of the subject matter: openness, contestability, and historicity—all this is not least a matter of an ongoing power struggle between different kind of subjects. This suggests an approach that is different from making reference to the characterisation of Human Rights as universal, inalienable, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to discuss another time the relationship between morality and Human Rights, or one could also say: the relationship between moralisation and strict legal provisions. The contribution argues in favour of an open ‘hermeneutic’ approach, not denying the need of legal instruments in strictu sensu but also not reducing legal questions on legality by pushing substantial questions around justice onto the backstage. Digitisation and a new stage of globalisation provide the background for this debate.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    From The International.

  2. 2.

    You are made from time, the non-stopping time. You are every single moment. (translation, P.H.)

  3. 3.

    Of course there is some repercussion of Luhmann’s dictum that ‘everything could be different—but nearly nothing that I can change’ (Luhmann 1969: 44; Luhmann 1969: 35 ff.; translation P.H.).

  4. 4.

    Including the oikos and the actors themselves, thus being reflexive and relational.

  5. 5.

    This refers on one hand to Clark’s/Fourastié’s three sector model and on the other hand Marx’ distinction between two departments, later enhanced by Rosa Luxemburg who added the finance department, later again by my own work, adding two departments, each specifically employed with the provision of services (see Herrmann 2014).

  6. 6.

    Though it may be that this need itself does only exist as reaction of some kind of ‘stimulation’ by the potential provider.

  7. 7.

    Zygmunt Bauman suggests that “One thinks of identity whenever one is not sure of where one belongs; that is, one is not sure how to place oneself among the evident variety of behavioural styles and patterns, and how to make sure that people around would accept this placement as right and proper, so that both sides would know how to go on in each other’s place. ‘Identity’ is a name given to the sought escape from that uncertainty.” (Bauman 1995: 82).

  8. 8.

    This formulation wants to suggest that such shift is for a long time overdue.

  9. 9.

    Not alluding to Montesquieu.

  10. 10.

    Characterised in particular by way of a new stage of independence of former colonies and/or countries of the periphery.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Human Rights Centre. Law School, Central South University, Changsha, China

    Peter Herrmann

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  1. Peter Herrmann
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Correspondence to Peter Herrmann .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Middle East Technical University in Ankara/Turkey, Bahcelievler, Ankara, Türkiye

    Mehmet Okyayuz

  2. Human Rights Centre, Central South University, Changsha, China

    Junxiang Mao

  3. University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Letlhokwa George Mpedi

  4. Institute for International Political Economics, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Research Fellow at the Human Rights Center Law School at the Central South University, Changsha, PRC, Berlin, Germany

    Peter Herrmann

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Herrmann, P. (2023). Morality—Ideology—Objectivity: The Pre- and Post-juridical Dimension of Human Rights in the Era of Digitisation and Artificial Intelligence. In: Okyayuz, M., Mao, J., Mpedi, L.G., Herrmann, P. (eds) Human Rights in a Changing World. Prekarisierung und soziale Entkopplung – transdisziplinäre Studien. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-39533-9_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-39533-9_3

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