On Trade Justice: A Philosophical Plea for a New Global Deal

by Mathias Risse, Gabriel Wollner

Overview

Trade has made the world. Still, trade remains an elusive and profoundly difficult area for philosophical thought. This novel account of trade justice makes ideas about exploitation central, giving pride of place to philosophical ideas about global justice but also contributing to moral disputes about practical questions. On Trade Justice is a philosophical plea for a new global deal, in continuation of, but also at appropriate distance to, post-war efforts to design a fair global-governance system in the spirit of the American New Deal of the 1930s. This book is written in the tradition of contemporary analytical philosophy but also puts its subject into a historical perspective to motivate its relevance. It covers the subject of trade justice from its theoretical foundations to a number of specific issues on which the authors' account throws light. The state as an actor in the domain of global justice is central to the discussion but it also explores the obligations of business extensively, recognizing the importance of the modern corporation for trade. Topics such as wages injustice, collusion with authoritarian regimes, relocation decisions, and obligations arising from interaction with suppliers and sub-contractors all enter prominently. Another central actor in the domain of trade is the World Trade Organization. The WTO needs to see itself as an agent of justice. This book explores how this organization should be reformed in light of the proposals it makes. In particular, the WTO needs to endorse a human-rights and development-oriented mandate. Overall, this book hopes to make a theoretical contribution to the creation of an exploitation-free world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198837411
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	12/03/2019
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 6.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Mathias Risse, Lucius N. Littauer Professor of Philosophy and Public Administration, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University,Gabriel Wollner, Professor of Political Philosophy, University of Bayreuth

Mathias Risse is Lucius N. Littauer Professor of Philosophy and Public Administration and Director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. His work primarily addresses questions of global justice - human rights, inequality, taxation, trade and immigration, climate change, obligations to future generations, and the future of technology. He has also worked on questions in ethics, decision theory, and 19th c. German philosophy. He also teaches in Harvard College, the Harvard Extension School, and is affiliated with the Harvard philosophy department. Risse is the author of On Global Justice and Global Political Philosophy. He serves as Co-Director of Graduate Studies at the Edmond J Safra Center for Ethics, as well as Director of the McCloy program. He has been a visiting professor at the National University of Singapore, New York University Abu Dhabi, and Leuphana University. Risse studied in Bielefeld, Pittsburgh, and Jerusalem.

Gabriel Wollner is Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Bayreuth. His academic interests are in political philosophy and ethics, and the application of these inquiries to various issues in public policy and economics. Previous work has appeared in The Journal of Political Philosophy; Politics, Philosophy and Economics; The Journal of Social Philosophy, Review of Social Economy. Wollner studied at the universities of Oxford and Harvard and earned his PhD from University College London in 2011. Prior to joining the University of Bayreuth, he was Assistant Professor in Philosophy at the London School of Economics and Junior Professor in Political Philosophy at Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin.

Table of Contents

1. The Political Significance and Philosophical Complexities of TradePart 1 - Trade Justice2. Towards a New Global Deal3. Images of Trade4. Trade as One Ground of Justice5. Exploitation as Unfairness Through Power6. The Moral Force of ExploitationPart 2 - Seeing like a State7. The State as an Agent of Trade Justice8. A Much-Needed Organization: Rethinking the WTO9. Domestic Trade Policies in an Interconnected World10. A Step into the Wrong Direction: Mega-RegionalismPart 3 - Seeing like a Corporation11. Theorizing the Firm12. Dealing with Workers: The Question of Wages13. Dealing with Communities: The Relocation of Jobs14. Dispersed Responsibility: Cooperating with Other Firms and Authoritarian States15. Conclusion: What Can Be Done?

Editorial Reviews

"Until now there hasn't been a comprehensive account of trade justice. Risse and Wollner do a great job of providing one that is also embedded in a broader account of global justice." — Benjamin Ferguson, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice

"Apart from being one of the very few book-length treatments of the topic in the recent literature, On Trade Justice stands out for two reasons ... it attempts to integrate trade into a broader, pluralist theory of global justice ... [and] it expresses the demands of trade justice in the language of exploitation ... Risse and Wollner's account is one that does not shy away from complexity." — Johannes Kniess, Economics & Philosophy

From the Publisher