Yianni Tsesmelis

When did you start your PhD?​

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I am starting my PhD supervised by Professor John Tobin at Melbourne Law School commencing 2022

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What you are currently working on? / What project you have worked on?

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I am planning on applying Wittgenstein's theories on language from his Philosophical Investigations (namely, language games, family resemblances, conventionalist language generally) to economic and social rights.

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What part of your research have you enjoyed most so far? 

 

My intention is to argue that Wittgenstein's theories help to explain how different social or linguistic groups can differ in terms of how they draw boundaries around the term "human rights" itself. It's this theory, I plan to argue, that helps to explain how a country like the U.S. can discuss socialised healthcare (as an example) as a "political" and "socialist" endeavour while our own country would likely use rhetoric belonging to the domain of human rights.

 

“Human rights”, I plan to argue, is a term that necessarily has no objective boundaries to

its scope, relying instead upon conventionalist choices made within the Wittgensteinian

“language game” played by a certain polity’s speakers. Understood from this perspective, the conventionalist nature of the term opens to economic and social rights activists the ability to attempt to politically capture the term in order to expand its boundaries to include economic and social rights as standard. Practically, this means moving away from the oft-seen preliminary step of having to politically justify certain economic and social rights as human rights by instead "playing" a different language game where these economic and social rights are plainly considered human rights.

 

Finally, in order to avoid a reduction into total skepticism where language around rights is irreconcilably contingent and conventionalist, I plan to invoke the Hobbesian social contract as a foundation upon which the legitimisation of economic and social rights stands.'

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Why do you want to do a PhD?

 

I've always found myself most drawn to theoretical academic work and the opportunity to spend a dedicated period of my life engaging closely with interesting academic ideas and theories has excited me since early into my tertiary education.

 

Why is your research important to you? 

 

For me, my research is an outlet through which I can engage with, assess, and digest what I interpret as a severe lack of governmental commitment to economic, social, and cultural rights as reflected in the ICESCR. For others, I hope that my research is similarly therapeutic but that it also ultimately provides an optimistic message to advocates of ESCR—that linguistic hijacking or the political capture of terms is a rhetorical tool available to these advocates in order to further delivery of ESCR.

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What difficulties have you experienced during the research/project?

 

So far, the main issue is determining which fields of study will form a part of my research. The research is heavily philosophical but might only strictly require invoking philosophy of language. As I continue to work through ideas, however, it has become apparent that the research could also look at issues of epistemological concern (how do we appropriately 'know' about rights and about classifying rights?) and of metaphysical/ontological concern (do these rights 'exist' as abstracts, ideas, concepts, etc.?).

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What approaches you take to cope with the difficulties?

 

I'm lucky enough to find this 'difficulty' extremely motivating! Even though I know I will need to limit my research and scope, engaging with these fields of philosophy is something I very much enjoy doing!

 

What are your future career plans?

 

Alongside my PhD, I am currently completing my cross-accreditation to be recognised as a lawyer in Victoria. Ultimately, I'd hope to be able to develop a career in academia.

 

What do you think about our ESCR Network?

 

I was pleasantly surprised to find the ESCR Network and to be welcomed in so warmly! Coming from tertiary education in the United States, I found ESCR communities relatively difficult to come by and am very glad to have found such a community back here in Australia.