EL CONTRATO SOCIAL GLOBAL DE DERECHOS HUMANOS: UNA INTERPRETACIÓN DEL CONTRATO ROUSSEAUNIANO DESDE EL COSMOPOLITISMO DE FRANCISCO DE VITORIA

Abstract

This synthetic-propositive study links the social contract tradition to the contemporary normative paradigm of human rights. It contends that this crossover has led to the appearance of a global social contract of human rights, based on a logic of reciprocity between people, which rivals the hegemonic model of political domina­tion, founded on inequality. To explore the plausibility of this hypothesis, on the one hand, a global social contract of the law of nations is theorized, integrating Francisco de Vitoria’s cosmopolitan vision with Rousseau’s contract; on the other hand, I argue the theoretical-empirical applicability of such a contract to the emerging institutional and cultural framework around human rights. It is concluded that the conception of a global social contract of human rights can contribute to the interpretation, justification and symbolic construction of emancipatory political change, aimed at strengthening the fulfillment of these rights.