Group rights

224 Pages·1994·13.938 MB·English

by  Judith Baker

Group Rights
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 Cana
dian 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 argu
ments one may offer for them.
(Toronto Studies in Philosophy)
JUDITH BAKER is Professor in the Department of Philosophy, Glendon
College, York University.

Group Rights
EDITED BY
JUDITH BAKER
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo London
© University of Toronto Press 1994
Toronto Buffalo London
Printed in Canada
ISBN 0-8020-2975-2 (cloth)
ISBN 0-8020-6945-2 (paper)
§
Printed on acid-free paper
Toronto Studies in Philosophy
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
Group rights
(Toronto studies in philosophy)
Includes papers presented at a conference held at
Glendon College, York University in Feb. 1992.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8020-2975-2 (bound) ISBN 0-8020-6945-2 (pbk.)
I. Minorities - Legal status, laws, etc. - Canada
Congresses. 2. Minorities - Legal status, laws,
etc. - Philosophy - Congresses. 3. Civil rights -
Canada-Congresses. 4. Human rights-Philosophy
Congresses. I. Baker,Judith. II. Series.
JC57l.G77 1994 323.1'71 C94-930722-X
This book has been published with assistance from the
Canada Council and the Ontario Arts Council
under their block grant programs.
Contents
Introduction 3
Judith Baker
1
Individual and Community Rights 1 7
Will Kymlicka
2
Group Inequality and the Public Culture of Justice 34
Melissa S. Williams
3
Collective Rights and Women:
'The Cold Game of Equality Staring' 66
Sherene Razack
4
Towards a Philosophy of Federalism 79
WayneJ. Norman
5
Internal Minorities and Their Rights 100
Leslie Green
6
The Group Right to Linguistic Security:
Whose Right, What Duties? 118
Denise G. Reaume
vi Contents
7
The Rights of Immigrants 142
Joseph H. Carens
8
Refugees: The Right of Return 164
Howard Adelman
9
Human Rights, Peoples, and the
Right to Self-determination 186
James A. Graff
Index 215
Contributors 218
GROUP RIGHTS

Introduction
JUDITH BAKER
In February 1992, Glendon College at York University in Toronto hosted
a conference on group rights. It was, with the exception of one partici
pant, a local conference in which philosophers, political theorists, and
law professors from Toronto's institutions of higher education took part.
All but one of the papers in this volume are those of its participants and
discussants. They include very general justifications for group rights, as
well as sceptical doubts, a sketch of a theory of federalism, and case
studies. There is both theoretical and detailed examination, with respect
to specific rights, of possible conflicts between individual and group
rights. Language rights, the rights of women, Aboriginal rights, and refu
gees' rights are discussed.
The essays as a whole demonstrate the unusual contribution of Canadian
thinkers to two issues that could not be more important for the world
today - group rights and the federal unity of culturally diverse communi
ties. Few philosophers have looked at the nature of either of these. Rarely
have philosophers joined with political and legal theorists. Perhaps more
important, the papers are not utopian. A decade ago, at a conference on
Liberalism organized by the Guelph-McMaster doctoral program in phi
losophy, John Dunn, the political theorist from Cambridge University,
diagnosed North American moral thought as what 'may illuminate the
nature of the good but contribute little to the assessment of what men
have good reason in practice to do.' The essays of this volume, on the
contrary, demonstrate a willingness to test conceptions of justice in terms
of their power to illuminate and resolve contemporary disputes.
Will Kymlicka situates his discussion of group rights within the Canadian
debate; the entire body of his published work provides a standard of
reference, as is evidenced here by the remarks of several other contribu-