My concern in this chapter is with the possibility, which the near universal subscription to the idea of human rights offers, of a generally accepted conception of a cosmopolitan ethics that can serve as the basis of a normatively organised international society. Contrary to the views of the English School as represented by Hedley Bull or to those of Terry Nardin, I do not believe that a normative international order can be developed and maintained independently of the general acceptance of common ethical principles.¹