Natural law, human rights and women's rights: an investigation into the foundations and limitations of appeals to women's rights outside the law

自冷战结束以来，人权语言已成为主要的话语框架，在此框架内，道德，政治和国际法问题进行辩论和争论。普遍人权的概念得到了广泛接受，尽管这是在后现代主义对基于呼吁普遍价值或规范的所有价值和做法提出质疑的时候发生的。人权理论家和实践者继续争论人权概念在多大程度上可能是“踩着高跷的胡说八道”（杰里米边沁），一个务实的道德体系，放弃了寻求基础，有利于'感性教育'，旨在灌输西方民主价值观到社会和个人（理查德罗蒂），或一个概念，这是含蓄地依赖于神学的观点与自然法和神圣的正义（迈克尔佩里）。该研究项目审查自然法传统及其与人权理论和法律的关系，特别强调妇女权利问题。该项目认为，自然法神学和哲学为反思法律、权利、性别和正义之间的关系提供了一个资源，同时肯定了人类与自然世界之间的密切关系，这对环境问题和对自然的理解具有影响。后启蒙时代的自然权利理论和现代人权理论。它探讨了妇女在法律面前的问题定位，使用Antigone和法国革命家Olympe de Gouges作为例子。通过展示这些妇女如何诉诸基于神圣法律的更高正义概念来挑战现行法律，它询问现代女权主义理论家在多大程度上可以发现思考妇女人权与法律、社会和自然关系问题的资源。这需要考虑法理学的论点，包括女权主义法理学，以及法律的实证主义和自然法之间的关系。它还涉及到批判性的评价后现代理论家谁否认的物质世界的意义，一方面，自然法理论家谁否认一个基本的和不变的道德法律的基础上呼吁自然法的另一方面。这种相互批评开辟了一条未探索的道路，可能导致一种全面和连贯的人权理论，这种理论能够容纳作为主体的妇女，同时也根据环境危机对自然与文化之间的关系进行积极的重新评价。这项研究试图证明，一个由基督教价值观塑造的后基督教社会，可以从对自然法的批判性改造中获益匪浅，并有能力为美好生活的概念提供信息。然而，如果这是认真对待妇女，环境和社会正义的问题，那么它必须超越阿拉斯代尔麦金太尔等基督教社区主义者的论点，对基督教与世俗文化之间的关系进行更激进和更深远的重新评估，基于复兴的创造学说，肯定物质世界的重要性，包括性别化的人体，认为这是一种良好的创造，可以通过精心安排，使人类社会和自然世界相互依存地繁荣发展，这种方法寻求培养一种对话，在这种对话中，可以援引世俗和神学的观点和论点，作为发展妇女权利理论的资源，这种理论能够应对世俗和宗教正义概念的挑战，性别和法律面前平等。

Since the end of the Cold War, human rights language has become the dominant discursive framework within which issues of ethics, politics and international law are debated and contested. There is a widespread acceptance of the concept of universal human rights, even although this has paradoxically occurred at a time when postmodernism has called into questions all values and practices based on appeals to universal values or norms. Human rights theorists and practitioners continue to debate the extent to which the concept of human rights may be 'nonsense on stilts' (Jeremy Bentham), a pragmatic ethical system which abandons the quest for foundations in favour of 'sentimental education' designed to inculcate western democratic values into societies and individuals (Richard Rorty), or a concept which is implicitly dependent upon theological perspectives associated with natural law and divine justice (Michael Perry). This research project examines the natural law tradition and its relationship to human rights theory and law, with a particular emphasis on questions of women's rights. It argues that natural law theology and philosophy provide a resource for reflection on the relationship between law, rights, gender and justice, while affirming the affinity between humankind and the natural world in a way which has implications for environmental concerns and the understanding of nature.The project looks at historical concepts of natural law from their origins in ancient Greek thought, through the medieval scholastic tradition, to post-Enlightenment theories of natural rights and modern theories of human rights. It explores the problematic positioning of women before the law, using Antigone and the French revolutionary Olympe de Gouges as examples. By showing how these women appealed to a higher concept of justice based on divine law to challenge existing laws, it asks to what extent modern feminist theorists might discover a resource for thinking through issues of women's human rights in relation to law, society and nature. This entails considering the arguments of jurisprudence, including feminist jurisprudence, and the relationship between legal positivism and natural law. It also involves a critical evaluation of postmodern theorists who deny the significance of the material world on the one hand, and of natural law theorists who posit an essential and unchanging moral law based on an appeal to natural law on the other. This mutual criticism opens up an unexplored path which may lead to a holistic and coherent theory of human rights capable of accommodating woman as subject while also offering a positive re-evaluation of the relationship between nature and culture in the light of the environmental crisis.Although rooted in the Christian natural law tradition, the research seeks to demonstrate that a post-Christian society shaped by Christian values has much to gain from a critical reclamation of natural law and its capacity to inform concepts of the good life. However, if this is to take seriously the questions of women, the environment and social justice, then it must go beyond the arguments of Christian communitarians such as Alasdair MacIntyre, to offer a more radical and far-reaching reappraisal of the relationship between Christianity and secular culture, based on a revitalised doctrine of creation which affirms the significance of the material world, including the sexed human body, as a good creation capable of being orchestrated in a way that allows for the mutual and interdependent flourishing of human society and the natural world.This approach seeks to cultivate a dialogue in which secular and theological perspectives and arguments are invoked as resources for the development of a theory of women's rights capable of responding to the challenges of both secular and religious concepts of justice, gender and and equality before the law.