International Rights and Responsibilities for the Future

Underpinning contemporary political debates and organizational restructuring is a serious rethinking of rights and responsibilities in the roles of governments, communities, companies, and individuals in a civil society. International Rights and Responsibilities for the Future provides a foundation for these debates by focusing on the need to reintegrate rights and responsibilities with contributions by authorities engaged in the process. A wide range of notable figures weigh in on the subject: Audrey R. Chapman argues for a revisioning of human rights as an instrument through which interrelated persons shape and reshape a social covenant defining reciprocal rights and responsibilities. Philippa Strum contends that the idea of individual responsibility to the community is central to rights and contract theory, as articulated in the Western tradition. Amitai Etzioni presents the communitarian view of too many rights, too few responsibilities. And David Boaz gives the libertarian view that one fundamental right is the right to live your life as you choose so long as you don't infringe on the equal rights of others. Particular attention is given to the arguments for a new international bill of rights and the issues of peace and security, information and knowledge technologies, the Global Society and knowledge-based development, criminal justice, human rights education, and sustainable development.

KENNETH W. HUNTER is Senior Associate of the Harrison Program on the Future Global Agenda in the Department of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland, College Park, and is coeditor of the journal Futures Research Quarterly.

TIMOTHY C. MACK is president of AAI Research in Washington, DC, a public policy research and strategic planning firm and is coeditor of Futures Research Quarterly.