PSCI281 Lecture Notes - Soft Law, Pacta Sunt Servanda, Rights

• School: University of Waterloo
• Department: Political Science
• Course: PSCI281
• Professor: Veronica Kitchen

Document Summary

Rawls says we will choose a) to guarantee the equal rights & liberties necessary for equal. John rawls" veil of ignorance: a thought experiment to determine the rational way to treat others. The veil of ignorance prevents us from knowing the distribution of wealth / class / resources /ethnicity / education / interests of others and of ourselves. Regime: a set of implicit or explicit rules, norms or decision-making procedures around which actors" expectations converge in a given issue area. The major treaties of the human rights regime are the universal declaration of human rights (1948), the international covenant on economic & Social rights (1966) and the international covenant on civil & political rights (1966) Hard law: law that is binding on all peoples and has effective tools for enforcement. There is very little of this kind of law at the international level (wto"s dispute resolution mechanism?)