Kant’s moral theory and International Law

“What we can learn from Kant’s moral theory, is that you can’t protect rights without a set of institutions.”

In her interview with War and Peace Talk, Dr Heather Roff Perkins (Visiting Professor at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver) explores the implications of the work of Immanuel Kant for international human rights law and the Responsibility to Protect. She stresses the need to develop an institutional framework that can adjudicate international rights. However, Dr Roff stresses that more political will is needed before stronger ‘supernational’ institutionalization is feasible.

Dr Roff partook in a two-day conference titled ‘The Responsibility to Protect and the Prevention of Mass Atrocoties’ hosted by The Hague Institute for Global Justice on 22 October 2014.