Global Justice meets Global Democracy

Workshop at the University of Durham

22nd and 23rd June 2017

The Durham Centre for Political Thought in collaboration with the Global Politics Masters Programme and Global Policy Institute are set to host a 2 day workshop next week to discuss questions of global justice, democracy, power and legitimacy.

The event ‘Global Justice Meets Global Democracy’ is organised by Elizabeth Kahn and Luke Ulas and will take place on the 22nd and 23rd of June at Elvett Riverside 1 (ER148). The workshop will consist in the presentation of ‘work in progress’ papers given by a number of invited speakers,  followed by a pre-prepared responses and broader discussion.

Confirmed participants include:

• Rainer Forst (Frankfurt)
• Dorothea Gaedeke (Frankfurt)
• Miriam Ronzoni (Manchester)
• Barbara Buckinx (Princeton)
• Jonathan Kuyper (Stockholm)
• Enzo Rossi (Amsterdam)
• Luke Ulas (Durham)
• Pietro Maffettone (Durham)
• Chris Armstrong (Southampton)
• David Held (Durham)
• James Christensen (Essex)
• Malte Ibsen (Copenhagen)
• Hwa Young Kim (Warwick)
• Alasia Nuti (York)
• Merten Reglitz (Birmingham)
• Antoinette Scherz (Frankfurt)
• Elizabeth Kahn (Durham)

A brief description of the theme of the workshop follows below.

To register please email elizabeth.kahn@durham.ac.uk by Friday 16th of Jun.

Global Justice Meets Global Democracy

Philosophical thinking about global politics contains a number of strands that have not always talked to each other. In particular, this was the case with theorising about ‘global distributive justice’ on the one hand, and ‘global democracy’ on the other, where the two literatures initially developed in tandem but largely without much significant interaction. In addition, however, there exist approaches that explicitly bring justice and democracy into conversation in some way. These include the notion of ‘global political justice’; global republican approaches emphasising questions of power, domination and legitimacy; critical theoretical approaches focusing on creating just global justificatory structures; and realist approaches seeking to ground global normativity by reference to the political concept of legitimacy while remaining suspicious of ‘moralistic’ justice talk.

This workship will bring together theorists working across these strands in order to enable fruitful discussion. How should the demands of global distributive justice be reconciled with those of global democracy? Do distributive justice and political justice admit of distinct conceptualisation, or is one essentially derivative of the other? Does theorising about global distributive justice underplay the importance of power and domination? How does the international/global context affects our responses to these questions, as compared with the context of the state? We anticipate discussion of these issues and others in a similar vein.