Are Human Rights Universal and Binding?

Arnold, Rainer

doi:10.1007/978-94-007-2354-2_25

Rainer Arnold³

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1 Citations

Abstract

Universality of human rights is understood as a propensity towards global acceptance of human rights. This has a horizontal and vertical dimension (geographical) and an inner, quality-related dimension (who is eligible). The ideology has been transformed into normative structures through UN and regional covenants. The national law in this area has been internationalized, with a tendency toward supranationalization. In countries where there are culture clashes or notable cultural diversity, interpretation of human rights may diverge on cultural grounds. Human rights principles become incorporated into national law either by incorporation into the constitution or by international covenant. It appears that the power of the international order is sufficiently powerful to reform deeply rooted traditional systems. Human rights become binding by reference to traditional sources of law as well as by reference to soft-law.

IV.C.2, Les droits de l’homme, sont-ils universels et normatifs?

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Notes

1.
Solomon Islands 2. Here and on references are given to the pages of the original national reports as submitted to the General Reporter and later made public on the website of the IACL prior to and during the IACL Congress of 2010.
2.
Poland 2.
3.
Canada 2; Hungary 14; Greece 19.
4.
See also Brazil 2 (“universalism of confluence”).
5.
Great Britain 2.
6.
Slovakia 7.
7.
USA 2, 4.
8.
Germany 2.
9.
See Hungary 12; Japan 4.
10.
Ibid.
11.
Ibid.
12.
Democratic Republic of the Congo 3–4.
13.
Great Britain 6; Slovakia 6; Ukraine 6; Netherlands 15; Scotland 2; Taiwan 3; Norway 2.
14.
Greece 3; Belgium 3.
15.
ECJ, Case 11/70, Rep. 1970, 1125.
16.
Netherlands 6.
17.
Canada 1.
18.
Ukraine 5, 8; Great Britain 3; Taiwan 2; Russia 9; Belgium 1.
19.
Netherlands 7, 21; Great Britain 3; Portugal 7; Ukraine 6; Slovakia 8; Solomon Islands 5.
20.
Netherlands 21; Slovakia 2.
21.
Belgium 7, Japan 5; Croatia 1–2.
22.
See Taiwan 3.
23.
Japan 12.
24.
See also Netherlands 8; Taiwan 2; Russia 9.
25.
R. Arnold, “Die staatliche Verfassung im europäischen Kontext: Überlegungen zum heutigen Stand des Konstitutionalismus,” in La Constitution hier, aujourd’hui et demain, Belgischer Senat, Heft 2 2006, 41–50.
26.
Armenia 1.
27.
Slovakia 8; Portugal 4.
28.
Great Britain 12.
29.
Taiwan 3; Germany 10.
30.
Italy 7–16.
31.
See Poland 4–14.
32.
See also Portugal 10, 16; Slovakia 4.
33.
Netherlands 25 ff.
34.
See also Netherlands 24.
35.
Poland 4 (‘general incorporation’).
36.
R v Secretary of State for Transport (ex parte Factortame) (1990) 2 /AC 85, (1991) 1/AC 603.
37.
H.P. Bulmer Ltd v. J. Bollinger SA (1974) Ch 401, at 418.
38.
Federal Constitutional Court (FCC), vol. 111, 317/318.
39.
FFC vol. 37, 271.
40.
FFC vol. 73, 339.
41.
FFC judgment of June 30, 2009 see: http://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/entscheidungen/es20090630_2bve000208en.html (English translation).
42.
FCC vol. 101, 361.
43.
FCC vol. 111, 307; see Germany 7.
44.
See also Hungary 3.
45.
R. Arnold, “European Constitutional Law,” in The Process of Constitutionalisation of the EU and Related Issues, ed. N. Sišková (Groningen: Europa Law Publishing, 2008), 41.
46.
No. 45036/98 (complaint), Neue Juristische Wochenschrift (NJW) 2006, 197.
47.
See also Ukraine 1, 2.
48.
See USA 25–26.
49.
See also Hungary 13.
50.
See Ukraine 1, 2; Portugal 7.
51.
Great Britain 11, 12 (“equal moral worth”); Portugal 4; Ukraine 2; Slovakia 8.
52.
See USA 27–28.
53.
See also Russia 2.
54.
Germany 9.
55.
See also Slovakia 8; Great Britain 6.

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Faculty of Law, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
Rainer Arnold (Chair of Public Law, Jean Monnet Chair of EU Law)

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Correspondence to Rainer Arnold .

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Law School, George Washington University, H Street 2000, Washington, 20052, District of Columbia, USA
Karen B. Brown
Washington College of Law, American University, Massachusetts Ave. NW., 4801, Washington, 20016, District of Columbia, USA
David V. Snyder

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Arnold, R. (2012). Are Human Rights Universal and Binding?. In: Brown, K., Snyder, D. (eds) General Reports of the XVIIIth Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law/Rapports Généraux du XVIIIème Congrès de l’Académie Internationale de Droit Comparé. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2354-2_25

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2354-2_25
Published: 25 November 2011
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-2353-5
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-2354-2
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