Theoretical error, real-world problems
35
importanceofjustifying(i.enotjustassuming)restrictionofrightstocitizens.27
Forhim,(human)rightsjustare‘conditionsthattheinstitutionsofalldomestic
societies should strive to satisfy, whatever a society’s more comprehensive
aims’.28 On the one hand, this seems to admit a noncitizenism like that presented
in this book. On the other hand, in his 2009 book The Idea of Human Rights,
Beitzexplainsthatinstitutionalprotectionforrightsistobeprovidedinthefirst
instance by States, through their laws and policies, where ‘the beneficiaries of
these protections are citizens’.29 It is possible that he did not intend this to restrict
scope only to formal citizens. Yet, this reintroduction of the assumption of cit
izenship, even if only through a quirk of language, is not uncommon amongst
cosmopolitan approaches. Beitz and other cosmopolitans who do this do not
explain how the composition of that citizenry is to be decided, how someone
may enter it, nor how noncitizens are to feature. Rights theorists, including those
who concern themselves directly with the problems of dehumanisation and
exclusion, can also be found to use language in this way.30
Methodological citizenism
Amongst theorists of global justice, then, there is another common problem.
While concerned with noncitizens overseas, some appear to take it for granted
whentheydiscussjusticewithin a State that they are talking only of citizens.31
JonMandle,forexample,explicitlydiscussesnoncitizensabroad,includingwith
regard to political participation.32 He describes a hypothetical mechanism for
allowing neighbouring or allied countries or other foreign groups to have input
when a proposed law would significantly affect them, but concludes that ‘it is
notunjustforaconstitutiontoexcludethem’.33Hesumsthisup:‘[i]nonecase,
theindividualisamemberofthecollectivebodyinwhosenametheinjusticeis
beingperpetrated,whileintheothercaseheisnotcomplicitintheinjustice.’34
In a different way, Gillian Brock’s 2009 book on global justice explicitly
addresses immigration, and some of the needs and rights arising as a result.35 But
27 Charles Beitz (1975) ‘Justice and International Relations’, pp. 360–389 in Philosophy and Public
Affairs 4; Charles Beitz (1979) Political Theory and International Relations, Princeton Univer
sity Press (1999 edition).
28 CharlesBeitz(2003)‘WhatHumanRightsMean’pp.36–46inDaedalus 132(1), p. 44.
29 Charles Beitz (2009) The Idea of Human Rights, Oxford University Press, p. 85.
30 For example, Ronald Dworkin discusses the particular rights and obligations of citizens at length,
but does not address the question of who can be a citizen and what to think about noncitizens.
Ronald Dworkin (1991) Taking Rights Seriously, Duckworth, London, pp. 185, 266.
31 Seyla Benhabib provides a particularly interesting presentation of this kind of approach in terms
of what she calls ‘sovereigntism’, see Chapter 7 in Seyla Benhabib (2011) Dignity in Adversity:
Human Rights in Troubled Times, Polity.
32 JonMandle(2006)Global Justice, Polity Press, p. 86.
33 Mandle2006ibid.p.87.
34 Mandle2006ibid.p.87.
35 GillianBrock(2009)Global Justice: A Cosmopolitan Account, Oxford University Press.