Rightful Relations with Distant Strangers: Kant, the EU, and the Wider World

This book provides a philosophical critique of legal relations between the EU and 'distant strangers' neither located within nor citizens of, its Member States. Beginning with the EU's commitment in Articles 3(5) and 21 TEU to advance democracy, human rights, and the rule of law in 'all its relations with the wider world', Ganesh examines in detail the salient EU and international legal materials and thereafter critiques them in the light of a theory of just global legal relations derived from Kant's Philosophy of Right. The book departs from comparable Kant-EU scholarship by not taking the essay Toward Perpetual Peace as the starting point for discussion, but by engaging closely with Doctrine of Right, Kant's final and comprehensive statement of his general theory of law.

The book thus sheds light on areas of EU law (EU external relations law, standing to bring judicial review), public international law (jurisdiction, global public goods), and human rights ('human rights jurisdiction'), and also critiques the widespread identification of the EU as a Kantian federation of peace.