PHIL 30028: THEORIES OF JUSTICE: GLOBAL JUSTICE

(First semester, 20010/11)

Unit Director and Lecturer: Christopher Bertram
Seminar tutor: Naomi Goulder
The location of the active version of this page is eis.bris.ac.uk/~plcdib/tj.html

Course Description:

This unit aims to introduce students to contemporary philosophical debates especially to the extension of those debates to issues of global justice. The course divides naturally into three parts: in the first we shall be concerned with recent discussions around the right "currency" for distributive justice, with debates around "luck egalitarianism" and with egalitarian, prioritarian and sufficiency-based conceptions of distributive justice. In the second part we look at John Rawls's book The Law of Peoples and at other attempts to extend theories of distributive justice to the global sphere (including ones by Thomas Pogge and Charles Beitz). The final part of the course may vary from year to year and will look at more applied topics which may include the justice of war, humanitarian intervention, terrorism, and climate change.

Course Intended Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the course, students should have an understanding of the main schools of thought within contemporary political philosophy concerning justice, and of how they might be extended to the global order.

Timetable:

The course runs during the first semester. The lectures are on Wednesdays at 10 am in LT1 43 Woodland Road and the seminars group memberships and meeting times will be available via Blackboard .

Contact:

You can contact the lecturer by email (C.Bertram@bristol.ac.uk) or telephone (928 9140). Or come along to his office hours: [Office hours for the 1st teaching block 2009/10 are 9-9.50 on Wednesdays and 9-9.50 on Fridays in Room 2N09, 43 Woodland Road.].
Please make sure to check your email account and the unit pages at blackboard regularly for announcements regarding this course.

Credit:

PHIL 30028 carries 20 credits. In order to obtain the credit you must: i) attend the weekly seminars; ii) deliver at least one satisfactory presentation in a seminar; iii) submit one essay by noon on the last day of the Autumn term; and iv) pass (or make a fair attempt at passing) an examination in the summer term.

Mode of Assessment:

The summative assessment for this course is by examination only. Coursework (one essay and a presentation at a seminar) is also assessed, for formative and diagnostic purposes, with feedback provided by the seminar instructor. Note that although your coursework assessment will not officially count towards the final mark, it is registered in an end-of-semester report.

Teaching Methods:

There will be two 50-minute sessions each week. The first of these will consist of a lecture by CB, the second will take the form of a seminar led either by Chris Bertram or by Naomi Goulder in which we shall interrogate some reading together. Each week a student or a pair of students will have the task of presenting to the seminar an introductory analysis of the prescribed passage for that week, that introduction will be followed by a discussion. In order to obtain the credits for this unit you are required to submit at least one satisfactory essay and make a satisfactory presentation or its equivalent at the seminar.

Essay Topics:

You must submit to the office, by the noon on the last day of the Autumn term, an essay of not more than 2,500 words on one of the following topics:

1. What should be the "currency" of egalitarian justice: welfare, resources or capability?
2. Is Parfit's prioritarian critique of egalitarianism successful?
3. Could a principle of sufficiency ground a fully adequate theory of distributive justice?
4. Should justice aim to remedy those disadvantages that are a consequence of brute luck?
5. Should the difference principle apply globally?
6. Is Rawls's Law of Peoples too tolerant of illiberal states?
7. Should the same distributive principle apply transnationally as within the borders of states?
8. Do nations have the right to self-determination?
9. Do we have a duty to assist the global poor?
10. Do nations have the right to stop foreigners from crossing their borders? On what grounds?
11. Is Walzer's doctrine of the "supreme emergency exception" justifiable? [Only if there is a lecture on this topic]
12. Does the issue of climate change raise insuperable conflicts between our concern for the existent global poor and the well-being of future generations?

General reading (books)

The following books are especially relevant to the general theme of the course:

John Rawls, The Law of Peoples
Jon Mandle, Global Justice
Darrel Moellendorf, Cosmopolitan Justice
Thomas Pogge, World Poverty and Human Rights
Kok-Chor Tan, Justice without Borders
Simon Caney, Justice Beyond Borders
Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom
M. Clayton and A. Williams (eds.), SocialJustice

Schedule of Lectures and Seminars

1: Luck egalitarianism

Essential reading
G. A. Cohen, "On the Currency of Egalitarian Justice", Ethics (1989), pp 906-944.[INCLUDED IN THE COURSE PACK]
Advisory reading
Ronald Dworkin, Sovereign Virtue ch. 2 or Ronald Dworkin, "What is Equality? Part 2: Equality of Resources",Philosophy and Public Affairs (1981) pp. 185-243
G.A. Cohen, "Against Equality of Resources: Relocating Dworkin's Cut" in Clayton and Williams eds, Social Justice or
Elizabeth S. Anderson, "What is the Point of Equality?" in Ethics vol. 109, no.2 (1999) pp.287-337. (Note, both the Dworkin and Anderson readings for this week are also in Clayton and Williams, Social Justice)
Harry Brighouse and Adam Swift, "Some responses to some objections to luck egalitarianism", available in the Week 1 folder on Blackboard.
Susan Hurley, Justice, Luck and Equality (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard, 2003) or her paper "Luck and Equality", available in the Week 1 folder on Blackboard.

2: Measuring advantage: resources versus capability

Essential reading
Amartya Sen, "Capability and Well-Being", in Martha C. Nussbaum and Amartya Sen, eds. The Quality of Life.[INCLUDED IN THE COURSE PACK]
Advisory reading
Amartya Sen, "Freedom, Achievement and Resources" and "Functionings and Capability", Inequality Re-Examined, Chs 2 and 3, pp 41-55.
Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom, chs. 1-4.
Ingrid Robeyns, "The Capability Approach: a theoretical survey" , in Journal of Human Development , Volume 6, Number 1. March 2005.
Thomas Pogge, "Can the Capability Approach be Justified?" (Read sections 1 and 2, though the rest, especially 4.4 might also interest you.)
Ronald Dworkin, Sovereign Virtue ch. 7 (2nd half - skip the bits about Cohen).
G.A. Cohen, "Amartya Sen's Unequal World" in New Left Review 203 (January-February 1994).

3: Equality, Priority or Sufficiency

Essential reading
Derek Parfit, "Equality or Priority?", The Lindley Lecture, University of Kansas (1991), pp 1- 42 also (the shortened version)
Equality and Priority Ratio (1997) pp. 202-221, or in Matthew Clayton and Andrew Williams eds. The Ideal of Equality, ch. 5.[INCLUDED IN THE COURSE PACK]
Advisory reading
T.M. Scanlon, "The Diversity of Objections to Inequality", in T.M. Scanlon, The Difficulty of Tolerance, or in Matthew Clayton and Andrew Williams eds The Ideal of Equality, ch. 3.
L. Temkin, "Equality, Priority, and the Levelling Down Objection", in M. Clayton and A. Williams (eds), The Ideal of Equality, ch. 6.
Dennis McKerlie, "Equality" . Ethics Vol. 106, No. 2 (Jan., 1996), pp. 274-296 is in many ways a more accessible guide to the distinctions in the Parfit paper.
H. Frankfurt, "Equality as a Moral ideal," Ethics (1987).
Paula Casal, "Why Sufficiency is Not Enough"

4: Rawls's Law of Peoples

Essential reading
J. Rawls, "The Law of Peoples", chapter 11 in Thom Brooks ed., The Global Justice Reader.[INCLUDED IN THE COURSE PACK]
Advisory reading
J. Rawls, The Law of Peoples.
A. Buchanan, "Rawls's Law of Peoples: Rules for a Vanishing Westphalian World", Ethics (2000).
Charles Beitz, "Rawls's Law of Peoples", Ethics, (2000).
Samuel Freeman, Rawls ch. 10.
T. Pogge, "The Incoherence between Rawls's Theories of Justice", Fordham Law Review (2004).
T. Pogge, "An Egalitarian Law of Peoples", Philosophy and Public Affairs (1994).[Also reprinted as ch. 12 of Thom Brooks ed. The Global Justice Reader.]
Darrel Moellendorf, Cosmopolitan Justice, ch. 2.
Kok-Chor Tan, Justice Without Borders, ch. 4.
Charles Beitz, Political Theory and International Relations, part III or
Charles Beitz, "International Distributive Justice" , Philosophy and Public Affairs (1975) or in
Beitz, Cohen, Scanlon and Simmons eds, International Ethics.

5: Does the global order harm the poor?

Lecture
Thomas Pogge, World Poverty and Human Rights, chs. 4 and 8, or the original versions of the same chapters: "Moral Universalism and Global Economic Justice" , in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics , 1:1 (2002), [INCLUDED IN THE COURSE PACK] and "Eradicating Systemic Poverty: brief for a global resources dividend" , in Journal of Human Development 2:1 (2001).[These two papers are reprinted as chs 18 and 22 of Tom Brooks ed. The Global Justice Reader.]
Advisory further reading
Mathias Risse, "How Does the Global Order Harm the Poor?" in Philosophy and Public Affairs, 2005, 33(4).

6: Cosmopolitan Justice: authority and democracy

Lecture
Thomas Nagel, "The Problem of Global Justice," , Philosophy & Public Affairs 33 (2005): 113–47.
[Also reprinted as ch. 21 of Tom Brooks ed. The Global Justice Reader.] [INCLUDED IN THE COURSE PACK]
Advisory further reading
Richard Miller, "Cosmopolitan respect and patriotic concern",Philosophy and Public Affairs, 27 (1998) pp. 202-24.
R. Arneson, "Do Patriotic Ties Limit Global Justice Duties?".
M. Blake, "Distributive Justice, State Coercion, and Autonomy", Philosophy and Public Affairs (2001).
Richard Miller, "Cosmopolitan respect and patriotic concern",Philosophy and Public Affairs, 27 (1998) pp. 202-24.
R. Arneson, "Do Patriotic Ties Limit Global Justice Duties?".
Christopher Bertram, "Global justice, moral development, and democracy" , in The Political Philosophy of Cosmopolitanism, eds Brock and Brighouse.
Christopher Bertram, "Cosmopolitanism and Inequality" in Res Publica 12:3 (September 2006).
Avery Kolers, "The Territorial State in Cosmopolitan Justice," Social Theory and Practice, 28:1 (2002), 29-50.

7: Partiality to compatriots

Lecture
Samuel Scheffler, "Families, Nations and Strangers", ch. 3 of his Boundaries and Allegiances (of which chs and 7 are also highly recommended for this unit).[INCLUDED IN THE COURSE PACK]
Robert E. Goodin, "What is So Special about Our Fellow Countrymen?", Ethics (1988)
[INCLUDED IN THE COURSE PACK] [Reprinted as chapter 13 of Tom Brooks ed. The Global Justice Reader.]]
Advisory further reading
David Miller, "The Ethical Significance of Nationality", Ethics (1988)
[Reprinted as chapter 14 of Tom Brooks ed. The Global Justice Reader.]. Kok-Chor Tan, Justice Without Borders, part III .

8 States and territory

Lecture
Cara Nine, "A Lockean Theory of Territory", (also in Political Studies, March 2008.)[INCLUDED IN THE COURSE PACK]
Allen Buchanan, "Boundaries: What Liberalism has to Say" in Margaret Moore and Allen Buchanan (eds) States, Nations and Borders. [INCLUDED IN THE COURSEPACK]
Advisory further reading
A. John Simmons, "On the Territorial Rights of States" , Philosophical Issues 35(2001) (Supplement to Nous).
Allen Buchanan, "Theories of Secession", Philosophy and Public Affairs, Vol. 26, No. 1. (Winter, 1997), pp. 31-61. [Also reprinted as ch. 5 of Thom Brooks, ed. The Global Justice Reader.]

9: Borders and migrations

Lecture
Joseph H. Carens, "The Case for Open Borders". The Review of Poltics 49:2 (1987). [INCLUDED IN THE COURSEPACK]
Christopher Heath Wellman, "Immigration and Freedom of Association", Ethics 119 (2008). [INCLUDED IN THE COURSEPACK]
Advisory further reading
Samuel Scheffler, "Immigration and the Significance of Culture" in Philosophy and Public Affairs5(2) (2007).
J. Carens, "Migration and Morality: A Liberal Egalitarian Perspective", B. Barry and R. Goodin (eds), Free Movement.
Michael Dummett, On Immigration and Refugees , ch. 4.
Joseph Heath, "Immigration, Multiculturalism and the Social Contract", Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence , 10:2 (July 1997).
Hillel Steiner, "Hard Borders, Compensation and Classical Liberalism", in Boundaries and Justice: Diverse Ethical Perspectives, (eds.) D. Miller and S. Hashmi.
Christopher Bertram, "Coercion of Foreigners, Territory and Compensation".

Michael Walzer, Spheres of Justice, chap. 2.
Stephen R. Perry, "Immigration, Justice, and Culture", in Warren F. Schwartz ed. Justice in Immigration (Cambridge, 1995).

10A: Justice and climate change

Lecture
(I'm minded to substitute this topic for just war, but will discuss with students before taking a final view.)
Stephen M. Gardiner, "Ethics and Global Climate Change", Ethics 114 (2004) 555-600. Henry Shue, "Global Environment and International Inequality", International Affairs 75:3 (1999). Simon Caney, "Cosmopolitan Justice, Responsibility and Global Climate Change". Leiden Journal of International Law (2005) 747-775.
Advisory further reading
The above papers are all collected Gardiner, Caney, Jamieson and Shue eds, Climate Ethics: Essential Readings (Oxford: OUP, 2010). The other essays in that volume would also repay study.

10B: Just War theory and terrorism

Lecture
Darrel Moellendorf, Cosmopolitan Justice, chs. 5 and 7. [7 is INCLUDED IN THE COURSE PACK]
C.A.J.Coady , "Terrorism, Morality, and Supreme Emergency", in Ethics, Volume 114:4 (July 2004) [INCLUDED IN THE COURSE PACK]
Advisory further reading
Michael Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations, 3d ed. (New York: Basic Books, 2000)
John Rawls, "Fifty Years after Hiroshima," in Collected Papers, ed. Samuel Freeman (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999), pp. 565.
David Rodin, “The Ethics of Asymmetric War” in The Ethics of War (eds Sorabji and Rodin).

Office hours for the 1st semester
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