Global Justice and the Distribution of Natural Resources

What should a political theorist say about the justice of the global distribution of natural resources? One issue is whether principles of distributive justice should be applied globally, and this has been debated between nationalists and cosmopolitans. A second, though, is how the category of 'natural resources' should be conceived in relation to other distributable goods. This has not adequately been addressed even by theorists of global justice who expressly focus on natural resources. In particular, neither Charles Beitz's argument for a natural resources redistribution principle nor David Miller's argument against works with a satisfactory account of how the physical distribution of resources relates to the distribution of their economic value. A more satisfactory account can be developed from the perspective of ecological economics as inspired by Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen. From this perspective, global inequalities in the command of natural resources can be viewed with the clarity that a normative theory of their justice requires. If natural resources are re-conceptualised in terms of 'ecological space', Beitz's argument can be recast and vindicated. The re-conceptualisation is necessary to overcome the problems with the original version, as is shown by reference to the existing alternative formulations of Hillel Steiner and Thomas Pogge.     

Fairness on the Day after Tomorrow: Justice, Reciprocity and Global Climate Change

Climate change raises important questions of global distributive justice, which can be defined as the issue of how benefits and burdens should be distributed within and between generations. This article addresses two conceptual issues that underpin the relationship between climate change and the part of distributive justice concerned with the entitlements of future persons. The first is the role of reciprocity, conceived either as mutual advantage or fair play, in the allocation of distributive entitlements between generations. The second is the extent to which theories of 'justice as reciprocity' can ground duties of intergenerational justice that underpin radical policies to manage the causes and impacts of global climate change. I argue that theories of justice as fair reciprocity generate significant duties of environmental conservation, despite these duties not being owed directly to the not-yet-born.     

全球正义与资源平等——浅论斯戴纳的资源平等观

当前对全球正义的讨论主要分为民族主义和世界主义两大阵营,民族主义者反对无上限的全球援助,世界主义者出于不同的立场对他们进行了批评。斯戴纳(Hillel Steiner)作为世界主义者,从资源的角度出发,认为富人有义务援助穷人。在他看来,民族主义者声称对领土内的自然资源有所有权是不成立的。自然资源作为一种运气并且作为一项基本人权,每个人对此都应有平等的份额。因而,资源占有超过平等份额的人应当对资源占有不足平等份额的人进行补偿,这是一种正义的义务。     

Movement Outcomes and Movement Decline: The Vietnam War and the Antiwar Movement

Conventional accounts underestimate the duration and impact of the movement against the Vietnam War. Data from the New York Times Index show more arrests in antiwar protests in 1972 than in the years usually considered the height of the movement; demonstrations continued until a week before the end of the war. The persistence of the movement strengthens claims it succeeded. While those who minimize movement influence assume it had to be popular to succeed, it had a direct impact on policy makers uncertain about future trends in public opinion and electoral behavior. The movement changed the discourse about, and the conduct of, the war, restraining escalation and accelerating troop withdrawals. Comparing Nixon's goals and those of the movement with the Paris Peace Accords shows the success of the movement. The movement also helped lower the voting age, reform the presidential nominating system, and change attitudes towards military action.     

Making Connections: Performance Regimes and Extreme Events

Local officials in the emergency management field have reached out and increased their connections with other agencies and organizations during the past several years. Collaborative networks have been created in an effort to address the complexities and uncertainties surrounding extreme events. But has this collaboration really taken root? In this article, the authors find that although a collaborative ethos has penetrated local emergency management, it is neither deep nor uniform. Data from a survey of emergency managers in North Carolina counties show that maintaining a functional network—a performance regime in which participants develop consistent management practices and rely on each other for the generation of new ideas—is a difficult task. The explanation for the variation found across the counties largely involves capacity and vulnerability.     

Geographies of Crime and Justice: Contemporary Transitional Justice and the Creation of 'Zones of Impunity'

This article explores some of the challenges that transnationalcrimes pose to the operation of transnational justice. By transnationalcrimes, we mean serious violations of international human rightsand humanitarian law that transcend national borders and areperpetrated by state or non-state actors. Many national andinternational legal mechanisms may only address a segment ofthese crimes, creating what we refer to as ‘zones of impunity.’This article examines how these dilemmas are unfolding in threeAfrican contexts: the possibility that Charles Taylor is triedfor crimes in Sierra Leone but not in Liberia; that only Congolese,and not Rwandans or Ugandans, face prosecution for crimes inIturi or elsewhere in the Democratic Republic of Congo; or thatJoseph Kony escapes prosecution in Uganda through being allowedamnesty or exile in Sudan. Our analytic framework considershow geography and politics affect legal responses to transnationalcrimes.