Undergraduate Module Descriptor

POL3210: Global Justice

This module descriptor refers to the 2016/7 academic year.

Overview

NQF Level 6
Credits 15 ECTS Value 7.5
Term(s) and duration

This module ran during term 2 (11 weeks)

Academic staff

(Convenor)

Pre-requisites

None

Co-requisites

None

Available via distance learning

No

This module provides an introduction to urgent moral questions surrounding the sphere of international politics and to the different ways in which political theorists and moral philosophers have addressed these questions. The questions we will address include the following: When is it legitimate, if at all, for states to intervene forcibly in the domestic affairs of other states? What is the relationship between political power and international justice? What do affluent countries owe to poor countries? Do the citizens of affluent countries have a moral duty to donate part of their income to the alleviation of global poverty? Does the global economic system harm the poor? Have states a right to exclude non-citizens from their borders? Do countries and/or individuals have a responsibility to reduce their carbon emissions so as to mitigate climate change?

In the course of this module you will explore several competing approaches to these questions and to the normative concepts these questions involve. You will be encouraged to critically assess different answers to these problems and to defend your own views about these urgent issues. This module has no prerequisites. However familiarity with basic normative concepts and modalities of normative argumentation in political theory/political philosophy is an advantage.

Module created

15/06/2016

Last revised

06/06/2018