The antecedents of ‘sovereignty as responsibility’

Abstract

Notions of 'sovereignty as responsibility' and 'the responsibility to protect' are often framed as radical departures from the 'traditional' conception of sovereignty. Many assume that sovereignty has, until recently, entailed only rights and not responsibilities. In contrast, this article argues that sovereign authority has been understood to involve varied and evolving responsibilities since it was first articulated in the 16th and 17th centuries. It then traces the historical emergence of the tension between the right of sovereign states to be self-governing and free from outside interference and their responsibility to secure the safety of their populations. It cautions against a simplified story of 'traditional' sovereignty which reifies supposedly concrete and ahistorical rights of sovereigns while casting sovereign responsibilities as a morally abstract and late-arriving challenge.

On the Meaning of ‘Responsibility’ in the ‘Responsibility to Protect’

“…18 At times, the nature and meaning of the responsibilities borne by states for the protection of their populations have been much less clear. This was particularly the case in the aftermath of World War II, in which an emergent international human rights regime seemingly imposed international 15 I offer a detailed defence of this claim in Glanville (2011). 16 Emphasis in original.…”

“…To cite this article: Luke Glanville (2011) On the Meaning of 'Responsibility' in the 'Responsibility to Protect', Griffith Law Review, 20:2, 482-504, DOI: 10.1080/10383441.2011 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10383441.2011.10854706…”

Happiness is the Wrong Metric

“…Deng, who is credited with coining the concept of sovereignty as responsibility, holds that in order to avoid being stripped of its sovereignty a state must maintain good governance and provide for the "general welfare of its citizens and those under its jurisdiction" (Glanville 2011a). In his 1996 book Sovereignty as Responsibility: Conflict Management in Africa, Deng and his colleagues wrote that the only states exempt from potential intervention are those with governments that "under normal circumstances, strive to ensure for their people an effective governance that guarantees a just system of law and order, democratic freedoms, respect for fundamental rights, and general welfare" (Deng et al 1996, p. 223).…”

The limits of sovereignty as responsibility

“…For a long history of sovereignty as responsibility, see Glanville, (). On the specifically Hobbesian antecedents, see Orford (), pp.…”

“…For a critique of an applied ethics model of politics focused on the dominance of neo-Kantian ideal theory in political theory and political philosophy, seeGeuss (2008).3 On the question of Kosovo's illegality and moral legitimacy, seeHabermas (1999) andBuchanan (2001).4 For a long history of sovereignty as responsibility, seeGlanville, (2011). On the specifically Hobbesian antecedents, seeOrford (2011), pp.…”