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Beitz, Charles

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Encyclopedia of Global Justice
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Charles Beitz is an American philosopher and political theorist whose classic Political Theory and International Relations (1979, 1999), probably more than any other text, demonstrated the importance of ethics and political theory for twentieth-century international relations and international law. In this work, Beitz also offered what is widely believed to be the first persuasive argument for global principles of justice. Beitz’s Political Theory and International Relations (PTIR) together with Henry Shue’s Basic Rights (1980, 1996) are seen as foundational texts for the field of international political theory. Beitz also has made major contributions to the literatures on cosmopolitanism and human rights. Beitz has joined with James Nickel (1987, 2007) in holding that the human rights tradition is not continuous with the tradition of natural rights developed by philosophers. In The Idea of Human Rights (2009), Beitz argues that human rights ought to be understood and justified as...

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References

  • Beitz CR (1979a) Human rights and social justice. In: Brown PG, MacLean D (eds) Human rights and US foreign policy. Lexington Books, Lexington/Toronto, pp 45–63

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  • Beitz CR (1979b) Political theory and international relations, 1st and 2nd edn. Princeton University Press, Princeton

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Churchill, R.P. (2011). Beitz, Charles. In: Chatterjee, D.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Justice. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9160-5_422

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9160-5_422

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