The Preoccupation with Rights and the Embrace of Inclusion: A Critique

Alexander Somek 

University of Iowa - College of Law
January 22, 2013

U Iowa Legal Studies Research Paper No. 13-11 
Abstract:      
Current European scholarship does not yet appear to be quite ripe to address the question of justice. Scholars focus on the protection of individual rights and remain largely oblivious of distributions. The question of how the burdens and benefits of social co-operation ought to be allocated does not enter the picture. This prevalent perspective is insufficient. A broader perspective on justice reveals that the European Union is less consistent with justice than with its apolitical counterpart, namely, inclusion. The European Union is an agent of inclusion rather than justice.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 21

Keywords: European Union, justice, social justice, human rights, inclusion

Full text available at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2205299