SFU PRESIDENT’S COLLOQUIUM: JUSTICE BEYOND NATIONAL BOUNDARIES
Spring, 2013
Course Description
The notion that relations of justice extend beyond the state is fuelled in part by recognition
that processes that are causally responsible for peoples’ well-being are distributed across state
boundaries. The effect of human-caused climate change is a central example. There is growing
appreciation that these harms present collective action problems whose resolution will require an
equitable distribution of the benefits and burdens of cooperation among all human beings. Yet at
present a fully worked account of a global theory of justice remains elusive.
The aim of this colloquium is to bring into sharper focus the issues that a credible theory of
global justice must address. The project is necessarily multi-disciplinary, requiring investigation of
topics that are conventionally studied in different academic units. This is reflected in the
distinguished list of invited speakers, whose areas of expertise are diverse, as well as the fact that the
course is open to interested graduate and senior undergraduate students from across the University.
Format
The group meets each week for a three-hour session, followed by a meal during those weeks
in which we host an invited colloquium speaker.
The week prior to the colloquium we will discuss a set of readings that introduce the issues
raised during the following week’s colloquium. During weeks when there are no colloquia groups of
students, selected from different academic disciplines, will be responsible for introducing that week’s
readings (The Presentation). All students are expected to write critical responses to that week’s
readings every week.
Students are also required to participate in all colloquia, as well as joining for a (free) meal.
Students will present an original Capstone Project at the conclusion of term.
Evaluation
Presentations: 2-3 per term 30%
Weekly 700 Word Written Assignments: 7 per term (pass or fail), 20%
Participation: 10%
Capstone Project and Presentation: 1 per term 40%
Provisional Schedule
All sessions meet from 3:30-6:30 on Thursdays. There will be colloquia on alternating weeks
to which all members of the University community are invited. During weeks without an invited
speaker the class will read materials in preparation for the following week’s colloquium.
Readings: TBA
TOPIC #1: Do the Boundaries of Political States have Moral Significance For
Distributive Justice?
Background for Colloquium 1: Jan. 10, wk 1
Colloquium 1: Jan. 17, wk 2
Kit Wellman, Philosophy, Washington U., St Louis
Michael Blake, "Distributive Justice, State Coercion, and Autonomy,"PHILOSOPHY & PUBLIC AFFAIRS
30 (2001) 257-96
Robert Goodin, "What Is So Special About Our Fellow Countrymen?" ETHICS 98 (1988): 663-86
Thomas Pogge, "What Is Global Justice?" POLITICS AS USUAL (Malden, MA:
Polity Press, 2010), pp. 10-25.
Samuel Scheffler, "Families, Nations and Strangers," THE LINDLEY LECTURE (Lawrence: The
University of Kansas, 1994).
Christopher Heath Wellman, "Relational Facts in Liberal Political Theory: Is There Magic in the
Pronoun 'My'?"
Background for Colloquium 2: Jan. 24, wk 3
Colloquium 2: Jan. 31, wk 4
Tom Christiano, Philosophy and Law, Arizona
Thomas Christiano, "Democratic Legitimacy and International Institutions," in The Philosophy of
International Law ed. Samantha Besson and John Tasioulas (Oxford: OUP, 2010)
Thomas Christiano, "The Legitmacy of International Institutions," in Routledge Companion to the
Philosophy of Law ed. Andrei Marmor (Routledge Pub. , 2012)
Richard Steinberg, "In the Shadow of Law or Power? Consensus Based Bargaining and Outcomes at
the GATT/WTO", International Organization, 56 (2002).
Allen Buchanan and Robert Keohane, "The Legitimacy of Global Governance Institutions," Ethics and
International Affairs 20/4 (2006).
TOPIC #2 What is the Right Trade-off Between Growth and Protection of the
Environment?
Background for Colloquium 3: Feb. 7, wk 5
"A few articles and/or book chapters will introduce students to the
economic, political and social challenges of preventing major global
warming and the widespread ecological destruction that would ensue."
University Reading Break: Feb. 11-15
Colloquium 3: Feb. 21, wk 6
Mark Jaccard, REM, SFU
TOPIC #3 Contextualism, Universalism, and the Meaning of Human Rights
Background for Colloquium 4: Feb. 28, wk 7
Colloquium 4: Mar. 7, wk 8
Melissa Williams, Political Science, University of Toronto
TOPIC #4 What kind of Special Consideration Should Aboriginal Peoples Receive In a
Theory of Global Justice?
Background for Colloquia 5-6: Mar. 14, wk 9
Colloquium 5: Mar. 21, wk 10
Rob Williams, Law, Arizona
1) "Savage Anxieties: The Invention of Western Civilization" (Palgrave MacMillan, released
August 21, 2012), Intro, Conclusion.
http://savageanxieties.com/
2) BCTC Annual report
3) HTG Admissibility Report from IACHR
4) HTG Presentation Summary on the Merits, Oct. 2011 and exhibits OAS photo sites and
Paldi Exhibit for Merits.
Colloquium 6: Mar. 28, wk 11
Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, Government of BC
1) Recent submission to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Aboriginal Children: Human Rights as a Lens to Break the Intergenerational Legacy of Residential
Schools.
2) “More than Words: Promoting and Protecting the Rights of Indigenous Children with International
Human Rights Instruments”, Realizing the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples:
Triumph, Hope, and Action, (Purich Publishing, Saskatoon, 2010).
TOPIC #5 Is Democratization the Most Effective Means to Help the World’s Poor?
Background for Colloquium 7: Apr. 4, wk 12
Colloquium 7: Apr. 11, wk 13
Anke Hoeffler, Economics, Oxford
Presentations of Capstone Projects: April 18 (Exam Period)