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Is there a Right to Travel? Kantian Hospitality as a Communication Right

In this paper, I will examine the normative foundations of a right to travel. I will focus on Kant’s legal conception of cosmopolitanism, as opposed to his moral conception of the same concept. I will defend the right to travel primarily as a communicative right, involving both the freedom to trade but also to academic and intellectual exchange. In this respect, the right to travel is essential for the academic enterprise, as well as for other enterprises which require international communication and coordination, such as in research and cooperation in global health. While the right to travel is not absolute from a Kantian perspective, an account of its normative foundations is helpful for understanding what amounts to legitimate constraints and limitations on global mobility. Further, I will also argue that the right to travel should not be conflated with the right to immigrate, although the two are causally connected. It follows that the right of states to control immigration, does not amount to the right to control global mobility simpliciter.

► this event is hybrid. Join in person at the Centre for Ethics (Larkin building, room 200) or online here.

Alice Pinheiro Walla

Associate Professor
Philosophy
McMaster University

Wed, Sep 18, 2024
12:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
200 Larkin