Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-21T10:50:38.308Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Critical notice of Aaron James, Fairness in Practice: A Social Contract for a Global Economy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Mathias Risse  and
Gabriel Wollner
Mathias Risse*
Affiliation:
Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Mailbox 14, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Gabriel Wollner
Affiliation:
London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London, WC2A 2AE, UK
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Nobody has offered such a comprehensive philosophical approach to trade. Nonetheless, James's approach does not succeed. First, we explore James's constructivist method, which does less work than he suggests. The second topic is James's take on the different ‘grounds’ of justice. We explore the shortcomings of approaches that focus exclusively on trade. Our third topic is why James thinks trade is such a ground. The fourth topic is how James argues for his proposed ‘structural equity.’ This proposal remains under-argued. Our fifth topic is to explore why structural equity would generate several specific principles. Finally, we discuss James's notion of autarky. Autarky sets the benchmark for James's ideas about how to divide gains of trade. We doubt that it can do so.

Keywords

tradefairnessglobal justiceRawlsConstructivismGauthier
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 43 , Issue 3 , 2013 , pp. 382 - 401
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Beitz, Charles. 1999. Political Theory and International Relations. Revised edition. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Bernstein, William. 2008. A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World. New York: Atlantic Monthly.Google Scholar
Caney, Simon. 2002. “Cosmopolitanism and the Law of Peoples.” Journal of Political Philosophy 10: 95 – 123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Findley, Ronald, and O'Rourke, Kevin. 2007. Power and Plenty. Trade, War, and the World Economy in the Second Millennium. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freeman, Samuel. 2007. Justice and the Social Contract: Essays on Rawlsian Political Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gauthier, David. 1986. Morals By Agreement. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
James, Aaron. 2012. Fairness in Practice: A Social Contract for a Global Economy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pogge, Thomas. 1989. Realizing Rawls. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Pomeranz, Kenneth, and Topik, Steven. 2006. The World that Trade Created. Society, Culture, and the World Economy, 1400 to the Present. London: Sharpe.Google Scholar
Rawls, John. 2001. Justice as Fairness: A Restatement, edited by Kelly, Erin. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Risse, Mathias. 2012. On Global Justice. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Sangiovanni, Andrea. Forthcoming. Domains of Justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Wenar, Leif. 2006. “Why Rawls Is Not a Cosmopolitan Egalitarian.” In Rawls' Law of Peoples: A Realistic Utopia? Edited by Martin, R. and Reidy, D.. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Wollner, Gabriel. 2012. “Review of A. James Fairness in Practice: A Social Contract for a Global Economy Notre Dame Philosophical Review”, 2012.10.10, ndpr.nd.edu, http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/34176-fairness-in-practice-a-social-contract-for-a-global-economy/.Google Scholar