CFP: Climate Change

Call for Papers

What: Climate Change: A Conference on Politics, Policy, and Justice
Where: Bern University, Bern, Switzerland
When: August 19-21, 2009

Please send abstracts (500-800 words) for paper proposals to climateandjustice@gmail.com no later than May 1st. Applicants will know of their acceptance by May 15th. Quality papers will be invited to contribute to an edited collection of the conference proceedings. Graduate students are encouraged to submit proposals, as travel funding has been set aside to aid exemplary graduate student presenters. For more information, please see the conference website: www.climateandjustice.org. The site will be continually updated with travel and lodging information, the conference schedule, and other useful information as it becomes available. If you have further questions, please contact Sarah at sbkenehan@gmail.com.

Keynote speakers:
Simon Caney, Oxford
Lukas Meyer, Graz University
Stephen Gardiner, University of Washington

Conference Abstract: Since the late 1980s climate change has been centre-stage in the international policy arena. However, as of yet, little has been done to incorporate all global players while at the same time catalysing the type of action that must be taken in order to combat this problem. There are likely many reasons for this current inaction, including but surely not limited to: questions surrounding climate science and predictions; questions concerning the most effective way to cope with the problem; and questions relating to the fair distribution of the burden of dealing with climate change. The focus of this conference will be to discuss the latter issue, i.e. the role of justice as it arises in the context of climate change. Justice related issues emerge in the debate over climate change policy on many levels. First, and probably most obviously, it must be determined what role each global actor will play in any coordinated effort to mitigate climate change. The answer to this question is not straightforward, as there are numerous factors that must be considered, including whether rights to emit greenhouse gases (GHG) should be divided equally among all nations, or whether rights to emit should be a function of the geographical placement of a nation, the population of a nation, the level of development of a nation, or even perhaps some combination of these elements. Second, and intimately related to the first issue, it has to be decided to what degree (if any) a nation’s historical emissions ought to be considered. As with the first issue, there is no clear-cut way to work through this problem, since there are seemingly justifiable reasons for engaging in all of the following: severely limiting the largest historical emitters’ claims to present and future emissions, considering only the historical record from the point in time in which a nation could reasonably have known of the harm it was contributing to, or, alternatively, agreeing that historical emissions should have no weight in the discussion, but rather all nations should agree on a fair emissions target from the present forward. Third, it must be determined to what degree (if any) future people ought to be taken into consideration when establishing climate change policy, since it has been predicted that the effects of climate change will stretch far into the future. Addressing this question requires having discussions on how future people can have justice claims on current people, what those justice claims might be, and how far into the future these claims reach. Fourth, it must be determined what types of entities have viable justice claims. Is it only individual persons that can make coherent justice claims? Or can nations, industries, businesses, non-human animals, species, ecosystems, and the like have and make meaningful justice claims? Finally, we must determine the level of responsibility individual actors have in mitigating and adapting to climate change, since it is not evident whether this responsibility falls only on nations, or whether it also rests with individuals, businesses, and industries, as well. Clearly then, the issue of justice and climate change is both complex and requires immediate attention.

Hillel Steiner Conference

THE ANATOMY OF JUSTICE
A Conference in Honour of Hillel Steiner
20-21 November, 2009
University of Manchester

The Manchester Centre for Political Theory (MANCEPT) is delighted to announce a conference celebrating the career of our distinguished colleague, Professor Hillel Steiner. Professor Steiner’s pioneering work on freedom, rights, exploitation, and justice has profoundly influenced moral, political, and legal philosophy over the last forty years. This conference will bring together scholars from around the world to discuss some of the central themes from Professor Steiner’s work.
Participants will include:
Ian Carter (University of Pavia)
G.A. Cohen (University of Oxford & University College London) (provisional)
Eve Garrard (Keele University & University of Manchester)

Alan Hamlin (University of Manchester)
Matthew Kramer (University of Cambridge)
William Lucy (University of Manchester)
Eric Mack (Tulane University)
David Miller (University of Oxford)
Serena Olsaretti (University of Cambridge)
Michael Otsuka (University College London)
Jonathan Quong (University of Manchester)
Zofia Stemplowska (University of Manchester)
Peter Vallentyne (University of Missouri)
Philippe Van Parijs (Université catholique de Louvain)

Further details regarding registration and accommodation will be forthcoming later this spring. For more details regarding MANCEPT please visit us here.

Just Prices and Fair Trade Workshop

"Just Prices and Fair Trade"
A Day-Workshop
Saturday 14 March 2009, from 1000 - 1730 hrs.
Inter-Disciplinary Ethics Applied CETL, University of Leeds.

WORKSHOP DETAILS
The idea that the price at which goods are sold might be "unjust" or "unfair" to one of the parties in the exchange seems very natural. Indeed, some such notion seems required to underpin contemporary demands for fair trade, and the criticism of some trade for being exploitative. Nevertheless, the theories of the "Just Price" that might give substance to such demands and criticisms are generally considered a discredited relic of Medieval philosophy. The workshop is intended as a contribution to building an understanding of the proper grounds on which prices can be assessed as just or unjust.

The Just Prices Workshop, 14th March 2009, at the IDEA CETL, Leeds is a research workshop brings together 3 prominent scholars engaged separately in research on justice issues as they relate to pricing. Prof. Hillel Steiner (Manchester) has a Leverhulme Trust major research fellowship on 'The Just Price'. Prof. John O'Neill (Manchester) is currently engaged in research on political economy and the moral limits of markets. Dr Arne Moritz (Halle-Wittenberg) is involved in research directly on theories of the just price.

The workshop is likely to be of particular interest to Moral / Political Philosophers and Ethicists, and those with interests in Business Ethics and the ethics of Sales and Marketing or Fair Trade. We thank the Society for Applied Philosophy and the IDEA CETL (University of Leeds) for their financial support for this event.

BOOKING
There is no charge, but numbers will be restricted. Those interested in attending are invited to book a place by sending an email to Liz Pollard (e.v.pollard@leeds.ac.uk) enclosing the following information: name, job title, department/institution, email address and contact telephone number.

PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME
1030 hrs Coffee
1100 hrs Prof. Hillel Steiner (University of Manchester) 'The Just Price and the Moral Limits of the Market'
1230 hrs Lunch (own arrangements)
1400 hrs Arne Moritz (Martin Luther Universität, Halle-Wittenberg) 'Just Prices - Still a good buy?'
1530 hrs Tea / Coffee
1600 hrs Prof. John O'Neill (University of Manchester) 'Price and the Claims of Need'
1730 hrs Close

LOCATION
The IDEA CETL is located within the main campus area of the University of Leeds, about 15 minutes' walk from Leeds railway station. Directions are available on request from Liz Pollard (email above). 8-12 Fenton Street, University of Leeds, Leeds. LS2 9JT

ENQUIRIES
For booking, see above. For other inquiries, contact Jamie Dow(j.dow@leeds.ac.uk).

Ratio Special Issue: Justice, Equality and Constructivism

The new issue of Ratio is a special issue* on Justice, Equality and Constructivism, containing articles by Richard Arneson, Michael Otsuka, Thomas Pogge, and Andrew Williams, amongst others. Well worth a read.

*access to full text for subscribers only