Human Rights and European Politics

This volume examines the roots of economic and social human rights in the Enlightenment thinking of Adam Smith, Montesquieu and Kant. The author observes how these thinkers' ideas on such topics have been neglected since the nineteenth century and discusses such hotly-debated issues as ownership of the product of labour, strikes and lockouts in light of these ideas. He concludes that it is vital for the Single Market to extend beyond human rights to the social and economic spheres, going beyond the terms of the Maasrticht Treaty.