Course Description

 

In this course, we review political philosophy, international and global relations, history, practical reasoning, the tensions between universalism and relativism, and the challenge of creating and maintaining just or fair societies in a global context.

Can global society be just and fair? Should individuals and states desire convergence on a set of abstract principles or consequent norms? Furthermore, does this type of global convergence (whether required, coerced, or encouraged) necessarily occur at the expense of particular cultures, traditions, and identities?

Justice is fundamentally about human rights. We begin this course by reviewing political theories of global justice, followed by an exploration of contemporary global dynamics in applied and distributive justice. In Units 4–7, we study gender and sexuality issues, race and ethnicity, genocide, self-determination, environmental concerns, class, and participatory rights within the context of global justice.

 

This course includes the following units:

- Unit 1: A Human Rights Context for Global Justice

- Unit 2: Origins of the Contemporary Justice and Rights Discourse

- Unit 3: Political Theory and Global Justice

- Unit 4: Empowerment, Agency, and Global Justice: Revisiting the Universal-Relative Debate

- Unit 5: Resolving Conflicting Claims for Justice: Revisiting the Individual-Collective Debate

- Unit 6: Participation, Rights, Needs, and Global Justice: Revisiting Civil, Political and Economic, Social, Cultural Rights Debate

- Unit 7: Final Considerations: Are Global and Justice Compatible in Theory and Practice?