The Philosophical Foundations of Cosmopolitan Norms

Abstract

The Eichmann trial, much like the Nuremberg trials before it, captured some of the perplexities of the emerging norms of cosmopolitan justice. This chapter discusses that since the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, one has entered a phase in the evolution of global civil society which is characterized by a transition from international norms to cosmopolitan norms of justice. Norms of international justice most commonly arise through treaty obligations and bilateral or multilateral agreements among states and their representatives. They regulate relations among states and other principals that are authorized to act as the agents of states in multiple domains, ranging from trade and commerce to war and security, the environment, and the media. Cosmopolitan norms of justice, whatever the conditions of their legal origination, accrue to individuals as moral and legal persons in a worldwide civil society.