When the World Was New

Abstract

This chapter covers the “discovery” of other world cultures that creates the possibility for a universal human rights system. Europeans meet absolute others, hitherto unknown. Rights for such beings were incomprehensible within the existing national legal frameworks because most white nationals could not “see” them as sharing a common humanity or belonging to their civilisation. The focus is first on Latin America, where the initial response to the others was to exterminate them, and then shifts to India and China. I show how the discovery of the Other leads to statements in favour of universal rights, starting with a traditional Christian reasoning about justice and rights in Las Casas, and the beginnings of a humanitarian international law in Suarez, Vitoria and lesser known figures like Salvado. I show how the Westerners were gradually compelled, especially when meeting the proverbial immovable object, China, to start questioning their views about national rights. A new, weak reason commences with the Enlightenment, notably in thinkers like Montesquieu and Voltaire, who suggested that the entire edifice of rights should be informed by teachings of the Chinese sages, Confucius and Lao-tse, marking a demand that rights be rethought, outside national-popular frameworks.