Benvenisti: Sovereigns as Trustees of Humanity: The Minimal Other-Regarding Obligations

Eyal Benvenisti (Tel Aviv Univ. - Law) has posted Sovereigns as Trustees of Humanity: The Minimal Other-Regarding Obligations. Here's the abstract:

This essay argues that sovereignty should be conceptualized as a trusteeship not only toward one’s own citizens but also toward humanity at large. Accordingly, sovereigns should be required to take into account other-regarding considerations when forming national policies that may have an effect beyond their national jurisdiction even absent specific treaty obligations. The essay suggests that the concept of sovereignty, crystallized at a time when distances were large and self-sufficiency was the aspiration must assume a new face in a densely-populated and deeply integrated world. The traditional view of sovereigns under both constitutional and international law regards them as Janus-faced: public toward their own citizens but private on the outside (vis-à-vis all others). This vision is informed by the assumption of a perfect fit between the sovereign and the affected stakeholders who are its citizens. This traditional view of sovereignty yields inefficient, inequitable and undemocratic consequences. After grounding the trustee sovereignty concept on three distinct bases – the sovereign’s power of exclusion, the idea of human rights and the right to democratic participation – the essay elaborates on the general implications of the theory. It identifies the minimal normative and procedural other-regarding obligations that arise out of this concept and suggests that these minimal obligations are already embedded in several doctrines of international law that delimit the rights of sovereigns. The trustee sovereignty concept can explain the evolution of these doctrines, and it can also inspire the rise of new specific obligations.