EU9292: Global Justice

School null
Department Code null
Module Code EU9292
External Subject Code L210
Number of Credits 20
Level L5
Language of Delivery English
Module Leader Dr Peredur Roberts
Semester Autumn Semester
Academic Year 2013/4

Outline Description of Module

Nearly 20 million people worldwide die poverty-related deaths every year. In response, cosmopolitanism argues that our duties of justice are global rather than limited by state borders or by the special relationships that we share with fellow citizens. The implication of this position is that all of us, and the states that represent us, are under obligations to act in the face of this global poverty and suffering. These obligations may require international aid or even the remaking of the global economic order. This module will examine central liberal cosmopolitan arguments in justification of these claims. It will also focus on critical engagements with cosmopolitanism from both their fellow liberals and from non-liberals. Critics will tend to argue that the state or community has a central role in defining our duties of justice and that this limits those duties to those that share a state.

On completion of the module a student should be able to

  • Demonstrate a clear familiarity with a wide range of ideas and arguments from contemporary accounts of global justice
  • Critically analyse and evaluate these arguments, to organise and consider them thematically and as part of traditions or schools of thought (e.g. liberalism, cosmopolitanism, communitarianism), and to demonstrate critical understanding of the relationships between these different theoretical positions
  • Demonstrate critical awareness of important contemporary accounts of cosmopolitan universalism, global distributive justice, liberal and non-liberal critiques of global justice and the importance of the state.

How the module will be delivered

The module will be delivered through a series of 22 lectures and 5-6 seminars.

Skills that will be practised and developed

Reading and analysing political and philosophical texts

Summarising and presenting the central arguments of complex texts

Understanding and evaluating complex concepts and arguments

Using the arguments of contemporary political theorists in oral debate and discussion and in written assignments

Oral and written communication skills

How the module will be assessed

Essay (30%)
Examination (70%)

Assessment Breakdown

Type % Title Duration(hrs)
Written Assessment 30 Global Justice N/A
Exam - Autumn Semester 70 Global Justice 2

Syllabus content

This module will examine the work of central thinkers and positions in contemporary Global Justice, focusing on their understanding of the role of the state, the relationship between state, community and individual, and on distributive justice.

Students will engage with the work of liberals such as John Rawls, cosmopolitans such as  Martha Nussbaum and Thomas Pogge, liberal critiques of cosmopolitanism such as Richard Rorty and Thomas Nagel and with non-liberal critics drawing on what has become known as ‘the Asian Values Debate’..

Essential Reading and Resource List

General textbooks:

Bell, Ethics and World Politics

Pogge & Millender (ed.s), Global Justice: Seminal Essays

Pogge & Horton (ed.s), Global Ethics: Seminal Essays

 

Central texts include:

Singer, ‘Famine, Affluence & Morality’

Rawls, The Law of Peoples

Pogge, World Poverty and Human Rights

Nussbaum, Frontiers of Justice

Caney, Justice Beyond Borders

Beitz, The Idea of Human Rights

Buchanan, Justice, Legitimacy & Slef-Determination

Nagel, ‘The Problem of Global Justice’

Kukathas, ‘The Mirage of Global Justice’


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