Community and Collective Rights: A Theoretical Framework for Rights Held by Groups

Description

This book presents an argument for the existence of moral rights held by groups and a resulting account of how to reconcile group rights with individual rights and with the rights of other groups. Throughout, the author shows applications to actual legal and political controversies, thus tying the normative theory to actual legal practice. The author presents collective moral rights as an underlying normative explanation for various legal norms protecting group rights in domestic and international legal contexts. Examples at issue include rights held by indigenous peoples, by trade unions, and by religious and cultural minority groups. The account also bears on contemporary discussions of multiculturalism and recognition, on debates about reasonable accommodation of minority communities, and on claims for third generation human rights. The book will thus be relevant both to theorists and to legal and human rights practitioners interested in related areas.

Dwight Newman is a Professor at the University of Saskatchewan College of Law, Canada.

Community and Collective Rights is a book that makes clear what it wants to do and does it. Some books read like collections of essays related to a general field of inquiry...This is a different kind of book, though, which presents a thorough, cohesive investigation of a single topic. Regardless of whether one agrees with the author's conclusions, the theoretical framework is a formidable attempt to tackle a complex problem...Newman's ambitious account challenges us to reconsider the basis of our views regarding the moral status, responsibilities, and claims of collectivities. Broadly speaking, the book should be of interest to scholars with an appetite for questions at the intersection of law and philosophy. Indeed, the book reads even more like a work in political morality than one might expect from the title...The book also should be of interest to legal scholars with an interest generally in questions about group rights, or in specific controversies that fall within this arena, as it is packed with illustrative examples drawn from international and domestic law. -- Stephen A. Simon * Law and Politics Book Review, Volume 22, No.10 * ...Newman has written an intellectually complex and challenging account of the manner by which we can identify those collectivities that hold moral rights, a framework that should have broad theoretical appeal. ...Community and Collective Rights...deserves a place on the bookshelves of all scholars investigating the moral status of groups and their relations to the individuals that constitute those groups. -- R.D. Robb * Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, Vol. XXV, No. 2 * Community and Collective Rights is a rigorous and convincing defence of the rights of groups as groups rather than as a set of aggregated individual rights a rewarding read that deserves careful attention. -- Andrew Woolford * Canadian Journal of Law and Society *