Group rights
By: edited by Judith Baker.
Contributors: Baker, Judith.
Series: Toronto studies in philosophy
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Published: 1994
Place of publication: Toronto; Buffalo
Language: eng
Number of pages: 217
Subjects: Minorities -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- Canada -- Congresses.; Minorities -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- Philosophy -- Congresses.; Civil rights -- Canada -- Congresses.; Human rights -- Philosophy -- Congresses.
Description: The concept of group rights has become crucially important in the growing number of multicultural states around the world. But nowhere, so far, have the theoretical, analytical, and philosophical issues been so directly addressed as in Canada, where the historical experience of the founding peoples has made group rights both politically topical and philosophically important. This collection introduces a uniquely Canadian perspective on a prominent set of issues in contemporary political philosophy. Some argue that the Canadian constitution and ordinary laws protect both universal individual rights and rights accorded to individuals as members of specific communities. Others find that the conflict between community and individual rights remains and gives rise to a number of questions. For instance, is it acceptable to accord rights to some people on the basis of their cultural membership, rather than to all people universally? Are the rights of Aboriginal peoples different from the rights of English or French Canadians? Do immigrants, once accepted for citizenship, have special rights? What are the rights of refugees and those claiming refugee status? By giving the debate a theoretical and philosophical focus, distanced from the give and take of current political discussions, these essays make fundamental distinctions between kinds of group rights and the arguments one may offer for them.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Includes papers presented at a conference held at Glendon College, York University in Feb. 1992.
Table of contents: title: Individual and community rights / Will Kymlicka; title: Group inequality and the public culture of justice / Melissa S. Williams; title: Collective rights and women : "the cold game of equality staring" / Sherene Razack; title: Towards a philosophy of federalism / Wayne J. Norman; title: Internal minorities and their rights / Leslie Green; title: The group right to linguistic security : whose right, what duties? / Denise G. Réaume; title: The rights of immigrants / Joseph H. Carens; title: Refugees : the right of return / Howard Adelman; title: Human rights, peoples, and the right to self-determination / James A. Graff.