INTRODUCTION

We live in ‘a time of responsibility’, as the French philosopher Jean Greisch once remarked. We are called upon, all the more insistently, to take a stand and to act on that choice in the often complex and confusing circumstances of insecurity, uncertainty, and vulnerability to which our late-modern societies have become subject. These societies find themselves in fact on the seemingly perilous knifeedge of local contexts, on the one hand, and a globalising perspective, on the other. This leaves people uncertain how to give form to their own personal autonomy, and in particular, how to develop their own future.

As a moral basis to law, autonomy actually refers not so much to the choices we make on a daily basis, perfunctorily and without too much reflection, but rather to the specific capacity of an individual person to make deeply reflective choices. Gerald Dworkin, following Harry Frankfurt, calls this latter conception of autonomy ‘a second-order capacity of persons to reflect upon their first-order preferences [that first, more superficial notion of autonomy], desires, wishes, and so forth and the capacity to accept or attempt to change these in light of higher-order preferences and values.’ He continues: ‘By exercising such a capacity, persons define their nature, give meaning and coherence to their lives, and take responsibility for the kind of person they are.’

It is precisely this notion of responsibility, anchored in a strong sense of autonomy and in a robust capacity for reflection, that can give conceptual texture to a number of legislative instruments proposed in the last decennia and designed to re-establish the equilibrium between individual rights and freedoms, and individual duties, obligations, and responsibilities. I deal with just three of these initiatives, since each of them illuminates a specific dimension of the relation between rights and responsibilities.

SETTING THE ETHICAL SCENE

THREE PROPOSALS FOR CHARTERS OF HUMAN RESPONSIBILITIES

In the wake of the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a number of leading former statesmen and politicians gathered under the auspices of the ‘InterAction Council’ (created in 1983) and proposed a Universal Declaration of Human Responsibilities. In the ‘Introductory Comment’ to their proposal, the authors explain why the time has come to talk about human responsibilities.