‘Achieved not given’: human rights, critique and the need for strong foundations

Abstract

In this article we focus critically on the normative foundations of the project outlined by Benjamin Gregg in The Human Rights State (2016). In developing our analysis of Gregg's project, we consider it in context of the inspiration it draws from the work of Hannah Arendt and Jacques Rancière. We argue that Arendt does not give Gregg any robust support for his anti-foundationalism, and that Rancière's politics of dissensus makes an uneasy ally for Gregg's constructivism. We argue that we need strong moral foundations to motivate critique and ground valid construction, and that they need not draw us back into the authoritarianism so often associated with classical foundations on which human rights claims have sometimes relied. We suggest that the right kind of thin but strong moral foundations are most clearly articulated in the work of the critical theorist Rainer Forst, and that Forst's constructivism and his emphasis on dissensus makes his perspective particularly compatible with Gregg's project. In the final parts of the paper, we expose what we see as the unacknowledged normative foundations of Gregg's position. We conclude by briefly examining the practical significance of his neglect of those foundations and the moral context that are crucial for tackling the governance gap in business human rights issues.

A realistic utopia? Critical analyses of The Human Rights State in theory and deployment: Guest editors’ introduction

“…In '"Achieved Not Given": Human Rights, Critique and the Need for Strong Foundations', 29 Yingru Li and John McKernan scrutinise, from the perspective of moral philosophy, the normative foundation of Gregg's theory of a human rights state. They argue that the anti-foundationalist and pragmatist conceptualisation of human rights that underlies Gregg's theory limits its potential to criticise relevant forms of injustice.…”

Business and Human Rights Regulation After the UN Guiding Principles: Accountability, Governance, Effectiveness

“… 19 These questions are raised and discussed with a special focus on the business case for human rights by, e.g., Li and McKernan ( 2017 : 265); as well as Baumann-Pauly and Posner ( 2016 ). In light of historical examples of the involvement of corporations in gross human rights violations, genocide, and crimes against humanity, such as the Atlantic slave trade and the Holocaust, Bernaz ( 2017 : 8) convincingly argues that “the search for a business case to respect human rights is inappropriate.”.…”