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Distributive Justice in the Age of Climate Change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 June 2020

Elkanah O. Babatunde
Elkanah O. Babatunde*
Affiliation:
Elkanah O. Babatunde, PhD Candidate, Department of Public Law, University of Cape Town. BBTELK001@myuct.ac.za
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Extract

Legal and political thinkers have always battled with the question of justice and, especially within a society, about the fair and just distribution of rights and responsibilities. This question is, however, not only relevant for the organization of municipal or domestic society; it has become increasingly relevant within the international legal system. An area where this has been most rife in the last three decades is the international law on climate change.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Law & Jurisprudence , Volume 33 , Issue 2 , August 2020 , pp. 263 - 292
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2020

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Footnotes

The author is grateful for financial support received towards this research from the Fox Fellowship at Yale University and the Law Faculty of the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

References

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18. Ibid at 175 and Nanda & Pring, supra note 16 at 41.

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21. UN General Assembly, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, GA Res 48/189, UNGAOR, 48th Sess, Supp No 49, UN Doc A/RES/48/189 (1994) at art 3(1).

22. Eric Neumayer, “In Defence of Historical Accountability for Greenhouse Gas Emissions” (2000) 33:2 Ecological Economics at 185.

23. Nico Schrijver, Evolution of Sustainable Development in International Law: Inception, Meaning and Status (Martinus Nijhoff, 2008) at 49.

24. Ibid .

25. Peter Singer, One World: The Ethics of Globalization (Yale University Press, 2002) at 32.

26. Lukas H Meyer & Dominic Roser, “Climate Justice and Historical Emissions” (2010) 13:1 Critical Rev of Int’l Social and Political Philosophy, 229 at 233-34 and Jonathan Pickering & Christian Barry, “On the Concept of Climate Debt: Its Moral and Political Value” (2012) 15:5 Critical Rev of Int’l Social and Political Philosophy 667 at 672.

27. Darren Samuelsohn, “No ‘Pass’ For Developing Countries in Next Climate Treaty, Says U.S. Envoy” (9 December 2009) New York Times, online: https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/12/09/09greenwire-no-pass-for-developing-countries-in-next-clima-98557.html?pagewanted=print and Bryan Walsh, “Do rich nations owe poor ones a climate debt?” (10 December 2009) Time, online: http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1929071_1929070_1947076,00.html.

28. Stephen M Gardiner, “Ethics and Global Climate Change” (2004) 114:3 Ethics 555 at 581; Martino Traxler, “Fair Chore Division for Climate Change” (2002) 28:1 Social Theory and Practice 101; Eric A Posner & David Weisbach, Climate Change Justice (Princeton University Press, 2010).

29. Pickering & Barry, supra note 26 at 675.

30. John Roemer, Theories of Distributive Justice (Harvard University Press, 1998) at 1.

31. Ibid .

32. Samuel Fleischacker, A Short History of Distributive Justice (Harvard University Press, 2004) at 19.

33. Ibid .

34. Ibid . See also Nikolas Kirby, “Two Concepts of Basic Equality” (2018) 24:3 Res Publica 297 at 303.

35. Fleischacker, supra note 32 at 21.

36. Ibid .

37. Ibid at 27.

38. Ibid at 54.

39. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on Political Economy and the Social Contract, translated by Christopher Betts (Oxford University Press, 2009) at 21 and Fleischacker, supra note 32 at 56.

40. Ibid at 66.

41. Ibid at 62-66.

42. Ibid at 68.

43. Immanuel Kant, Lectures on Ethics, edited by Peter Heath & JB Schneewind and translated by Peter Heath (Cambridge University Press, 1997) at 178-79.

44. Ibid at 179.

45. Ibid .

46. Ibid at 197.

47. Ibid at 199.

48. Fleischacker, supra note 32 at 71-72.

49. Ibid at 78.

50. Ibid .

51. Something which John Rawls, one of the foremost modern proponents of the distributive justice theory, would later do.

52. Will Kymlicka, Contemporary Political Philosophy: An Introduction, 2nd ed (Oxford University Press, 2001) at 58.

53. Ibid .

54. Simon Caney, Justice Beyond Borders: A Global Political Theory (Oxford University Press, 2005) at 104.

55. Ibid .

56. John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, 2nd ed (Harvard University Press, 1999) at 65-66.

57. Ibid at 66.

58. Ibid at 86.

59. Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State and Utopia (Basic Books, 2013) at 183.

60. It is important to point out that international law has now evolved to a point where non-state actors are increasingly regarded as subjects of international law.

61. Michael Harrington, The Vast Majority: A Journey to the World’s Poor (Simon & Schuster, 1977) at 103.

62. MW Janis, “The Ambiguity of Equity in International Law” (1983) 9 Brook J Int’l L 7 at 17.

63. Mohammed Bedjaoui, Towards a New International Economic Order (Holmes & Meier, 1979) at 59-63.

64. Declaration on the Establishment of New International Economic Order, A Res 3201 (S-VI), UNGAOR, 6th Special Sess, Supp No 1, UN Doc A/9559 (1974) 3 at 3.

65. Ibid .

66. Inamul Haq, “From Charity to Obligation: A Third World Perspective on Concessional Resource Transfers” (1979) 14 Tex Int’l LJ 389 at 390.

67. Janis, supra note 62 at 17.

68. UN Doc TD/RBP/CONF/10 (2 May 1980) in 19 ILM 813 at 814.

69. John Rawls, The Law of Peoples (Harvard University Press, 1999) at 117.

70. Ibid at 118-19.

71. Ibid at 117.

72. Ibid at 118.

73. Ibid at 37, 118-19.

74. Ibid at 114.

75. Ibid .

76. Ibid at 118-19.

77. Ibid at 114.

78. Michael Blake, “Distributive Justice, State Coercion and Autonomy” (2001) 30:3 Philosophy & Public Affairs at 257; Oisin Suttle, “Equality in Global Commerce: Towards a Political Theory of International Economic Law” (2015) 25:4 Eur J Int’l L 1043 at 1047; Samuel Freeman, Justice and the Social Contract: Essays on Rawlsian Political Philosophy (Oxford University Press, 2007); Andrea Sangiovanni, “Global Justice, Reciprocity, and the State” (2007) 35:1 Philosophy & Public Affairs at 3.

79. Charles R Beitz, Political Theory and International Relations (Princeton University Press, 1999) [Beitz, Political Theory]; Caney, supra note 54; Thomas W Pogge, Realizing Rawls (Cornell University Press, 1989).

80. Rawls, supra note 56 at 4, 413.

81. Pogge, supra note 79.

82. Thomas Nagel, “The Problem of Global Justice” (2005) 33:2 Philosophy & Public Affairs 113 at 121 [Nagel, “Global Justice”].

83. Ronald Dworkin, Sovereign Virtue (Harvard University Press, 2000) at 6.

84. Nagel, supra note 82 at 121.

85. Ibid at 121-22.

86. Ibid at 126-27.

87. Ibid at 127.

88. Ibid .

89. Ibid .

90. Ibid at 130.

91. Blake, supra note 78.

92. Ibid at 257-58.

93. Ibid at 258.

94. Ibid at 259-60.

95. Ibid at 265.

96. Ibid at 280.

97. Arash Abizadeh, “Cooperation, Pervasive Impact, and Coercion: On the Scope (Not Site) of Distributive Justice” (2007) 35:4 Philosophy & Public Affairs 318 at 350-51, 354-56.

98. Nagel, “Global Justice”, supra note 82 at 124.

99. Ibid .

100. Suttle, supra note 78 at 1051.

101. Ibid at 1052.

102. Freeman, supra note 78 at 287-88.

103. Suttle, supra note 78 at 1053.

104. Nagel, “Global Justice”, supra note 82 at 119.

105. Samuel Black, “Individualism at an Impasse” (1991) 21:3 Canadian J Philosophy 347 at 355-57.

106. Pogge, supra note 79 at 240.

107. Ibid at 247.

108. Ibid at 266.

109. Ibid at 267.

110. Ibid at 260.

111. Ibid .

112. Beitz, Political Theory, supra note 79 at 151 and Pogge, supra note 79 at 241.

113. Ibid at 240.

114. Beitz, Political Theory, supra note 79 at 128.

115. Ibid at 132.

116. Pogge, supra note 79 at 260.

117. Charles R Beitz, “Cosmopolitan Ideals and National Sentiments” (1983) 80:10 The Journal of Philosophy 591 at 594 [Beitz, “Cosmopolitan Ideals”].

118. Beitz, Political Theory, supra note 79 at 143-53; Beitz, “Cosmopolitan Ideals”, supra note 117 at 595.

119. Beitz, Political Theory, supra note 79 at 143-53; it is necessary to state that while Beitz held to the conclusions of his agreement, he later revised his premise and stated that the existence of international social cooperation was not a necessity to reach the conclusion that distributive justice be applied within the international system. See also Beitz, “Cosmopolitan Ideals”, supra note 117 at 595.

120. Beitz, Political Theory, supra note 79 at 141.

121. Ibid .

122. Ibid at 142.

123. Ibid at 141.

124. Ibid at 141-42.

125. Ibid at 151.

126. Brian Barry, Liberty and Justice: Essays in Political Theory Vol. 2 (Oxford University Press, 1991) at 182, 194.

127. Caney, supra note 54 at 110.

128. Beitz, Political Theory, supra note 79 at 131.

129. Caney, supra note 54 at 112.

130. Ibid .

131. David AJ Richards, “International Distributive Justice” in J Roland Pennock & John W Chapman, eds, Ethics, Economics, and the Law: NOMOS XXIV (New York University Press, 1982) 275.

132. Ibid .

133. Ibid at 279.

134. Ibid at 290.

135. Beitz, “Cosmopolitan Ideals”, supra note 117 at 595.

136. Ibid .

137. Caney, supra note 54 at 115.

138. Sangiovanni, supra note 78 at 10.

139. Ibid .

140. Ibid .

141. Ibid at 12-13.

142. Ibid at 17-18.

143. Ibid at 18.

144. Thomas Nagel, Equality and Partiality (Oxford University Press, 1995).

145. Sangiovanni, supra note 78 at 19-20.

146. Ibid at 15-17, 35.

147. Ibid at 38.

148. Ibid at 15-17.

149. Pogge, supra note 79 at 262-63.

150. Ibid at 265.

151. Ibid at 264.

152. Immanuel Kant, The Metaphysical Elements of Justice (1797) at 124-29, cited in Beitz, Political Theory, supra note 79 at 144.

153. Ibid at 146.

154. Ibid at 152.

155. Ibid at 149-51.

156. Rawls, supra note 56 at 54.

157. Kant, supra note 43.

158. Elli Louka, International Environmental Law: Fairness, Effectiveness and World Order (Cambridge University Press, 2006) at 68.

159. Ibid .

160. Bedjaoui, supra note 63 at 50, 63.

161. Ibid at 50.

162. Karin Mickelson, “Leading Toward a Level Playing Field, Repaying Ecological Debt, or Making Environmental Space: Three Stories About International Environmental Cooperation” (2005) 43:1/2 Osgoode Hall LJ 137 at 150-54 and Marina Cazorla & Michael Toman, “International Equity and Climate Change Policy” (2000) 27 Climate Issue Brief.

163. Jos Olivier et al, Trends in Global CO2 Emissions: 2016 Report (Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, 2006) at 34 and John Ashton & Xueman Wang, “Equity and Climate in Principle and Practice” in Joseph E Aldy et al, eds, Beyond Kyoto: Advancing the International Effort against Climate Change (Pew Center on Global Climate Change, 2003) 61 at 65.

164. Timmons Roberts & Bradley Parks, “Ecologically Unequal Exchange, Ecological Debt and Climate Justice: The History and Implications of Three Related Ideas for a New Social Movement” (2009) 50:3-4 Int’l J Comparative Sociology 385 at 393.

165. French, supra note 14 at 37.

166. Shue, supra note 15 at 531.

167. Ubi jus ibi remedium.

168. Fleischacker, supra note 32 at 72.