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Global libertarianism: how much public morality does international human rights law allow?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 October 2021

Eric Heinze Open the ORCID record for Eric Heinze [Opens in a new window]
Eric Heinze*
Affiliation:
School of Law, Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK
*
Author for correspondence: Eric Heinze, E-mail: e.heinze@qmul.ac.uk
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Abstract

International human rights specialists and libertarian philosophers have rarely pursued meaningful exchanges, but this paper probes some of their common ground. In recent years, leading international monitoring bodies have developed a principle described here as the ‘Libertarian Principle of Human Rights’ (LPHR). It runs as follows: Governments cannot legitimately recite public morals as a sufficient justification to limit individual human rights. That principle might seem obvious in many societies today, but throughout history, including the history of liberalism, any notion that certain individual interests must trump religious or customary beliefs has stood as the rare exception. The seemingly Western and secular suggestion of a libertarian principle inherent within human rights may seem at odds with the view that human rights ought to reflect diverse cultural traditions; however, LPHR underscores an anti-authoritarianism, which, it is argued, must form part of any serious conception of human rights. LPHR can be substantiated even for highly controversial rights, such as LGBTQ+ rights, suggesting that it applies a fortiori to more settled rights.

Keywords

International human rightslegal philosophyLGBTQ+ rightslibertarianismpolitical philosophy
Type
Research Article
Information
International Theory , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , November 2022 , pp. 571 - 594
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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