"International Law and Global Justice," Centre for Study of Social Justice & Centre for International Studies, University of Oxford, May 20-21, 2009.

Debates on international law and on global justice have for the most part proceeded separately. Only very few theorists have suggested that the project of designing principles of international/global justice is closely related to that of designing principles of international law. Taking the lead from this often underappreciated suggestion, in this workshop we aim to explore the connections between international law and global justice. In particular, we welcome papers – both legal and philosophical – discussing the following topics: The relation between coercion, law and (global) justice: an increasing number of political theorists have argued that obligations of justice only apply within political communities by virtue of the existence of a coercive legal system. What are the implications of this view for the question of global justice? Can we plausibly claim that international law is coercive in the same way in which domestic law is? If not, does this mean that principles of justice should not apply to it? The effectiveness of international law as a means to realising global justice: if international law is one of the most powerful instruments at our disposal to bring about a morally better world, what sort of reforms of the current international legal system would be necessary to move closer to the goal of global justice? Given the sui generis nature of the international legal system, how can such reforms be most fruitfully brought about? Global justice, international law and state sovereignty: is the principle of the sovereign equality of states itself a principle of international/global justice or a hindrance to the quest for global justice? Would a world inhabited by states which are genuinely – as opposed to merely formally – equally sovereign be a just world? Or does the realisation of a just world require us to transcend the very idea of state sovereignty, moving from a system of international law to a global legal system? Keynote Speakers: Prof. David Armstrong (University of Exeter) Prof. Allen Buchanan (Duke University) Prof. Terry Nardin (National University of Singapore) Dr Amanda Perreau-Saussine (University of Cambridge) Further information is available frmo globaljustice@politics.ox.ac.uk.