| Unit name | Theories of Justice |
|---|---|
| Unit code | PHIL30028 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | H/6 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Emeritus Professor. Chris Bertram |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
PHIL20046 Realism and Normativity |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | Department of Philosophy |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts, Law and Social Sciences |
This unit aims to introduce students to contemporary philosophical debates around justice and 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.
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, migration rights and climate change.
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.
1hr weekly lecture plus 1hr weekly seminar
The summative assessment for this course is by examination only (1 x 3hour unseen examination).
Coursework (one 2500 word essay and a presentation at a seminar) is also assessed, for formative and diagnostic purposes, with feedback provided by the seminar instructor.
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.), The Ideal of Equality
