Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.56550/d.4.1.2
Is EU law positive cosmopolitan right à la Kant?
Bertjan Wolthuis
orcid.org/0000-0002-6197-6352
; Free University Amsterdam
*
* Corresponding author.
Abstract
The question raised in this article is whether EU law is positive cosmopolitan right in Kant’s sense. If it is, it could be viewed as a contribution to Kant’s project of ‘perpetual peace.’ The conclusion of this article is that EU law is not positive cosmopolitan right. The main reason is that cosmopolitan right is limited to the right of travellers to be treated peacefully by foreign states. EU law accomplishes much more than that. EU member states have agreed by treaty to host each other’s nationals, who thereby have attained the status of guests in foreign EU member states. The implication of this is that EU law qualifies as hospitality right or ‘Gastrecht,’ as Kant calls it (AK 8:358), which is a right that can be acquired by treaty, whereas cosmopolitan right—which specifies the innate right of human beings and states to be on Earth—is limited to the conditions of hospitality, as Kant writes in Zum ewigen Frieden. This means that the European Union fulfils much more than a requirement of peace as understood by Kant. Its treaties are ‘wohltätiger Verträge’ (AK 8:358), fulfilling requirements of integration between the participating states and their nationals.
Keywords
Kant; Cosmopolitan right; Hospitality right; EU law
Hrčak ID:
345817
URI
Publication date:
24.3.2026.
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