1. Is there a Human Right to Free Movement? Immigration and Original Ownership of the Earth
- Author:
- Michael Blake and Mathias Risse
- Publication Date:
- 04-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
- Abstract:
- One of the most striking features of the political arrangements on this planet is the fact that it is divided in to sovereign states. The earth is carved into territories ruled by governments whose accountability to those who do not live there continues to be rather limited. This is striking because life chances depend significantly on the state into which one happens to be born. To be sure, in recent times, globalization has woven together, in highly complex systems, the fates of communities, households, and individuals in distant parts of the world; it is partly for this reason that hardly anybody now champions a notion of sovereignty that insulates a state from extern al criticism, or limits liability for how that state's actions affect foreign nationals. Nevertheless, state sovereignty persists as a political fact. The number of independent states has increased enormously through the major political upheavals of the 20 th century, and it is not clear that there is anything wrong in principle with states – or so, at any rate, we will assume in this study.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Foreign Policy, Migration, and Politics