Democracy and Global Justice Conference

Co-Sponsored by: Washington University, Saint Louis University, the Whitney R. Harris Institute for Global Legal Studies, and the Center for the Study of Ethics and Human Values.

Location: Washington University School of Law, Bryan Cave Moot Court Room and at St. Louis University's Student Center

April 1-2, 2005

Current list of speakers:

Organizing Committee:

Aims

The aim of the conference is to bring together theorists from politics, law and philosophy to discuss one of the most important topics today, namely, how democracy should be viewed in international law and morality. Invited speakers have been asked to assess how the presense of democratic and other deliberative institutions should affect how States are assessed.


Topics of the Conference

The general topic of global justice is a matter of growing popular and academic interest. Washington University is well positioned to make a multi-disciplinary contribution to the dialogue on this topic. This dialogue will boost the visibility of Washington University both in international academic circles and public policy debates. Some key questions raised by this topic are: What do those members of affluent societies owe to distant strangers who are suffering? and What is the most appropriate way to structure the political relationships among states?

This conference will appeal to, and has already received strong interest from, a wide variety of scholars at Washington University in Philosophy, Political Science, Gender and Women's Studies, History, and Legal Studies, as well as members of the Law School. We are confident of attracting people from other area universities, especially St. Louis University which is a co-sponsor of the conference, as well as members of the general public.

Recent global trends have brought together sizable racial, ethnic, and national groups that previously lived largely apart from each other. Historical patterns of colonization, conquest, and both voluntary and forced migration have imposed a multicultural character on most of the societies on earth. While these trends are not new, the recent forces of globalization have accelerated them. Many of the now-multicultural societies were relatively homogeneous until recent decades. One issue that is now prominent in all of them is the demand by subordinate cultural groups to be able to preserve their cultural traditions and identity despite legal, political, economic, and cultural forces that pressure them to assimilate to the dominant surrounding cultures.

One area of assimilation pressure consists of requirements in liberal democratic societies to protect various rights of women and girls that appear to be violated by the traditions of cultural minorities in those societies. These conflicts set up an apparent tension in liberal democratic societies between women's rights and the rights of cultural minorities. Even for women who do not reside in subordinated cultural groups, questions may arise about whether the women's rights are being sufficiently protected by the particular political and cultural system in which they live. Several speakers will address this topic.

Issues of global justice obviously arise in the area of contemporary international law. The field of international law itself makes little sense if there is no global justice, that is, no constraints on the actions of individuals and states not to act unfairly toward one another. These debates have raged in scholarly journals as well as in court opinions before the International Court of Justice as well as the Yugoslav and Rwanda Tribunals currently sitting in The Hague and Arusha respectively. Several speakers will address this issue.

One recent topic of scholarly and popular interest concerns: Is there a basic human right to democracy? Democracy seems to have high value, but is it necessary for global justice? Can't there be justice when there are benevolent autocratic regimes, such as in Jordan? Considerations of global moral and legal justice, as well as general accounts of democracy, seem to be required to provide a firm normative grounding for international law today. Several speakers will also address this timely issue.



PROGRAM

Friday, April 1st - St. Louis University

9:00 am - Deen Chatterjee (Utah, Philosophy)
"Justice and Democratic Legitimacy: The Cosmopolitan Challenge"

10:30 am - Monique Deveaux (Williams, Politics)
"Political Legitimacy and Democratic Inclusion"

1:00 pm - Brooke Ackerly (Vanderbilt, Politics)
"Immanent Universal Human Rights: More Legitimate than Reasonable"

2:30 pm - Andreas Niederberger (Frankfurt, Philosophy)
"Is Transnational Democracy Democratic?"

4:00 pm - Joshua Cohen (MIT, Politics & Philosophy) and Charles Sabel (Columbia, Law)
"Democracy Beyond the State", Wade Memorial Lecture


Saturday, April 2nd - Washington University

9:30 am - Allen Buchanan (Duke, Philosophy)
"The Legitimacy of Global Governance Institutions"

11:00 am - Avigail Eisenberg (Victoria, Politics)
"Defending Identity Claims in a Global Context"

2:00 pm - Frank Cunningham (Toronto, Philosophy & Politics)
"The Global Public and its Problems"

3:30 pm - Jeff McMahon (Rutgers, Philosophy)
'Just Cause for War"

 

 

 

Contact: Kimberly Mount