Chief Editor
  • Prof. Christina Nikolova, PhD
Editorial Board
  • Prof. Christina Nikolova, PhD - UNWE
  • Prof. Elka Todorova, DSc. - UNWE
  • Prof. Maya Lambovska, DSc. - UNWE
  • Assoc. Prof. Todor Nedev, PhD - UNWE
  • Assoc. Prof. Dorina Kabakchieva, PhD - UNWE
  • Assoc. Prof. Paskal Zhelev, PhD - UNWE
Scientific Secretary
  • Assoc. Prof. Aleksandar Valkov, PhD - UNWE
Coordinator
  • Assist. Prof. Veselina Lyubomirova, PhD - UNWE
International Editorial Board
  • Damian Stantchev, PhD
    Edinburgh NAPIER University, UK

  • Ivaylo Vassilev, PhD
    University of Southampton,UK

  • Prof. Irina Kuzmina-Merlino, PhD
    Transport and Telecommunication Institute, Riga

  • Milan Zdravkovic
    University of Niš, Serbia

  • Prof. Niculae Mihaita, PhD
    Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, Romania

  • Prof. Ricardo Jardim-Gonçalves, PhD
    UNINOVA institute, New University of Lisbon, Portugal

  • Prof. Ing. Jaroslav Belás, PhD
    Tomas Bata University in Zlín, Czech Republic

  • Prof. John Rijsman, PhD
    Tilburg University

  • Prof. Ing. Zdenek Dvorák, PhD
    University of Zilina, Slovak Republic

  • Prof. Zoran Cekerevac, PhD
    “Union – Nikola Tesla” University in Belgrade, Serbia

The Concept of Group Rights from Universalist-Particularist Perspective and Beyond
YEARBOOK OF UNWE
year 2019

The Concept of Group Rights from Universalist-Particularist Perspective and Beyond

Abstract

The issue of group rights is not a new one for political thought and practice. In late 20th-early 21st century it has resurfaced in political-international discourses and practices and normative-theoretical debates. The concept of group rights is of interest because of the normative, evaluative, and descriptive role it plays both in theory and practice and it is its debatable nature that we are interested in. Our main argument is that the concept of group rights reveals significant shortcomings for as much it is justified, at the same time it appears to be unsustainable (theoretically and empirically) for a number of reasons. We begin with a discussion of the concept of group rights in the universalist-vs.-particularist perspective and go beyond it to introduce the “group rights” debates and critically discuss its inherent controversies. We use a history-of-ideas approach to introduce the origin and evolution of the more general concept of “rights” as the natural setting within which the concept of “group rights” is tackled. Then we apply methods of substantive conclusions and of normative and political analyses of concepts that are pertinent to both normative political theory and to political science. The study reveals that straightforward and clear-cut “black-and-white” claims are hard to sustain when it comes to the justification, necessity, implications or functional usefulness related to the concept of group rights.

JEL: К38

Keywords

human rights, group/collective rights, universalist and particularist perspectives, individual and the group
Download Yearbook_2019_No08_Bakalova, Blagoeva.pdf
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ISSN (print): 1312-5486
ISSN (online): 2534-8949