Abstract

In this article we discuss the so-called cantilever argument, used by Joseph Carens to establish a human right to global freedom of movement. First of all, we criticise Carens’s classification of the argument as both an “analogy” and a “logical extension”. Comparing the cantilever argument with Carens’s popular feudalism analogy suggests understanding it solely as an extension, but certainly not as a “logical” one. Finally, we sketch out whether, by means of the cantilever, he succeeds in shifting the burden of proof to the opponents of such a human right.