RGGJ talk by Anna Stilz
Anna Stilz (Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Politics,
University Center for Human Values at Princeton University)
Climate Migration and Territorial Justice
Since climate change compromises the carrying capacity of the earth, it sharply raises the question of territorial justice. How should the earth’s remaining habitable spaces be distributed? This paper argues that we should conceive the aim of territorial justice as that of constituting an equal status—that of common possessor of the globe. I argue that earth-dwellers will enjoy this status if three core territorial rights—to occupancy, basic justice, and self-determination—are recognized universally, and the global distribution of territory is organized to ensure that these rights are robustly guaranteed for all. I apply this account to generate duties of territorial justice under conditions of climate change: what do we owe people whose continued capacity to live in their territories is under threat? I argue that those states historically responsible for climate change have duties of adaptation, migration, redistribution, and compensation towards groups whose territory’s carrying capacity is threatened or damaged.
This will be a hybrid event :
In person at McGill - Room: Arts 160
Online by Zoom