Justice Debate Research Articles

Democratic justice and status inequality in temporary labor migration

ABSTRACT This paper argues against the claim that liberal democratic societies’ commitment to political equality requires them to offer a path to citizenship to temporary migrant workers (i.e. the democratic justice argument). I advance two arguments against this claim: (i) that access to citizenship is neither sufficient nor necessary to reduce temporary migrant workers’ exploitation and (ii) the democratic justice argument hinges on an untenable conception of status inequality. The paper fleshes out these two reasons in detail to then present an adequate analysis of the status difference that temporary labor migration programs (TLMPs) give rise to. I conclude that TLMPs’ restriction of their participants’ rights and access to citizenship can be compatible with democratic principles and, particularly, with political equality.

Judging creativity in AI-generated art: Chinese and Western perspectives on originality in copyright law

Abstract The desire to translate mental images into tangible forms has been intrinsic to human civilisation since its inception and has evolved through various mediums. The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) image generators has complicated the relationship between creative ideas and their expression, introducing a third-party intermediary labelled “AI” that blurs traditional distinctions between creator and tool. Legal decisions on whether AI-generated outputs merit copyright protection have rekindled discussions on originality, with courts grappling over the threshold of creativity required for protection. Initial rulings have taken divergent paths; some disconnect human creativity from AI output, while others acknowledge AI’s potential for novel creative expression, as exemplified by the Li v Liu decision in the Beijing Internet Court. This article contextualises and analyses this decision, sparking broader debates on the interplay between human creativity and AI, the arguments of incentive and justice, and the necessity of re-evaluating copyright frameworks to accommodate AI’s role. It proposes a nuanced understanding of collaboration that recognises AI’s contributions, allowing for distinctions between levels of human creativity and forms of artistic expression.

Internalist and Integrationist Theories of (Global) Justice

The global justice debate has increasingly moved toward the analysis of concrete issues in global politics, such as trade, migration, or climate change. This raises a methodological question: should the demands of justice in these domains be theorized independently or in conjunction with one another? Integrationists have championed the latter approach, arguing that it is better suited to guide our practical judgments. In contrast, internalists maintain that each domain is governed by its own set of principles. This paper defends the plausibility of the internalist approach against integrationist challenges. By examining different interpretations of internalism, it first seeks to provide a clearer overview of the methodological dispute. It then analyzes various arguments for integrationism, showing that their implications are more limited than their proponents believe. Finally, it focuses on the question of practical guidance, highlighting the value of idealized domain-specific theorizing in guiding transitions toward just arrangements.

Children’s participation in green space planning: a pathway to environmental justice

ABSTRACT Green spaces provide multiple benefits to physical and mental health, especially for children. Meanwhile, children are not typically included in most participatory processes regarding green spaces and their needs, if at all, tend to be represented by adults. This study attempts to answer the following research questions: (1) Does the degree of children’s participation differ depending on the spatial scale of green space planning processes? (2) How can children’s participation be interpreted in the context of environmental justice? We used mixed methods to assess the legal condition, process flow and products of three participatory processes regarding green space planning in Lodz (Poland). Our findings demonstrate that even the seemingly well-intentioned processes may fail to adequately incorporate children because of procedural inconsistencies and other deficiencies. Even if a process allows children to express their opinions, it fails to translate these voices into reality. We highlight the need to increase awareness of the importance of children’s inclusion in participatory processes to guarantee that their needs are considered, endow children with pro-environmental behaviours, and promote the idea of civil society. We contribute to the environmental justice debate by demonstrating the necessity of differentiating between procedural and participatory environmental justice dimensions.

Gender-inclusive language in midwifery and perinatal services: A guide and argument for justice.

Effective communication in relation to pregnancy and birth is crucial to quality care. A recent focus in reproductive healthcare on "sexed language" reflects an ideology of unchangeable sex binary and fear of erasure, from both cisgender women and the profession of midwifery. In this paper, we highlight how privileging sexed language causes harm to all who birth-including pregnant trans, gender diverse, and non-binary people-and is, therefore, unethical and incompatible with the principles of midwifery. We show how this argument, which conflates midwifery with essentialist thinking, is unstable, and perpetuates and misappropriates midwifery's marginalized status. We also explore how sex and gender essentialism can be understood as colonialist, heteropatriarchal, and universalist, and therefore, reinforcing of these harmful principles. Midwifery has both the opportunity and duty to uphold reproductive justice. Midwifery can be a leader in the decolonization of childbirth and in defending the rights of all childbearing people, the majority of whom are cisgender women. As the systemwide use of inclusive language is central to this commitment, we offer guidance in relation to how inclusive language in perinatal and midwifery services may be realized.

How Should the Benefits and Burdens Arising from the Eurozone Be Distributed amongst Its Member States?

How Should the Benefits and Burdens Arising from the Eurozone Be Distributed amongst Its Member States?

Porphyry’s Account of Justice in On Abstinence

Abstract In this essay, I argue for a new analysis of Porphyry’s argument for justice in On abstinence. I aim to show that (i) in addition to being an inner order of soul, justice is attributed to external actions and (ii) justice of actions consists in refraining from harming harmless living creatures, including animals and plants. The relevant harm, I argue, consists in taking the lives of living creatures and taking products from them by force or without care. I contend that Porphyry extends moral concern for others to all living creatures, but not merely on the basis of animal suffering. Finally, I argue that that the hierarchy of godlikeness in On abstinence does not support the subordination of moral concern for animals and plants to higher virtues of purity and theory.

‘과거사 청산’을 주제로 한

Objectives This study examined the content selection of history lessons on the topic of truth and justice in order to teach history for democratic citizenship.
 Methods I identified the concepts of truth and justice and historical reconciliation for civic education. Then, I reviewed the direction of education on the past and truth and justice. I analyzed the textbook “Modern and Contemporary History of Korea” in the 7th curriculum and the textbook “Korean History” in the 2015 revised curriculum and selected the content of history learning with the theme of truth and justice.
 Results First, students should learn about the past and who was involved in the movement for truth and justice. Second, learn the structures that connect the past and present. Third, learn about the arguments surrounding truth and justice. Teachers should teach students to engage in the argument for truth and justice.
 Conclusions The history textbooks were analyzed. Compared to the 7th curriculum's “Korean History” textbook, the narrative of the 2015 revised curriculum clarified the main actors of state violence and the movement of truth and justice, and there was a clear trend away from the anti-communist narrative. The development of democracy was also described in connection with the truth and justice. However, the narrative of the period, in which the executive branch was the main actor in truth and justice, needs to be supplemented with a variety of actors. We propose the following as the contents of history learning on the topic of truth and justice. By learning about the history of truth and justice, students will develop their capacity to build human rights and democratic societies. They will become citizens who actively engage in social discussions about truth and justice.

Global justice must be seen to be done—A defense of integrated pluralism

Over the past two decades the academic literature on global distributive justice has generated a proliferation of positions regarding the question of how to conceive a globally just distribution of goods. One important development within this global justice debate is the emergence and increasing influence of several Pluralist theorists of global justice—including, perhaps most prominently, Fraser, R. Miller, and Risse. This article argues that Pluralists have not yet sufficiently engaged with the difficulty of how their conceptions of global justice could satisfy the publicity condition. This condition requires that the demands of justice must be publicly known to be recognized and fulfilled. This article explains why meeting this condition is especially difficult for the Pluralists. Then, it outlines an Integrated Pluralist position which, by placing special emphasis on global background justice, can meet the publicity condition. This position “integrates” concerns of justice emerging from a plurality of sites of justice. Thereby it follows “Integrationist” approaches to global justice—like those of Caney and Walton—which claim that the contents of justice of a given site of justice must not be determined in isolation from contents of other sites of justice.

What COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Disparity Reveals About Solidarity

What COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Disparity Reveals About Solidarity

Loss and Damage Financing in the Climate Justice Debate

The concept of Loss and Damage (L & D) emerged as a contentious issue during the negotiations for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The framing of the concept and the demand for a Loss and Damage Fund were both controversial. It is these controversial dimensions of the climate change regime that are analysed in this article. The data were obtained from mainly publications of UNFCCC Secretariat, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, climate negotiation blocs and civil society organisations. Based on a sample of thirty-six sources, the varied conceptualisations of L & D are examined. The concept was politicised. Be that as it may, it was in the demand for L & D financing that the influence of politics was particularly apparent. The demand brought into conflict the Global South and the Global North. The basic argument of the Global South in its demand for a L & D Fund was based on the need for climate justice. In spite of the fact that the demand started as early as 1991, it was only in 2022 during COP 27 in Egypt that the Global North accepted in principle, based on an understanding that liability and compensation were not involved. The Fund was formally established during COP 28 in Dubai in 2023. However, issues of effective funding remain.

Writing History in a Supreme Court Ruling: Evaluative language in the majority opinion concerning Dobbs vs. Jackson

This paper conducts an exploratory investigation into the use of evaluative language in the historical section of the majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, 597 U.S. (2022). The investigation employs Martin & White’s (2005) Appraisal Theory, adapted specifically for the analysis of the particular evaluative features of historical discourse as elaborated on, for example, by Myskow (2018a) and Oteíza & Pinuer (2013). The findings confirm that a revised version of the Appraisal framework can be fruitfully applied to systematically account for the complex interplay between, on the one hand, the various sources of evaluation, and, on the other hand, the specific attitudinal resources, employed by the authorial voice in an attempt to construe and advance a particular view of the past. This particular ideological view is ultimately leveraged to produce a convincing justificatory argument for the overruling of the two previous landmark Supreme Court decisions that had, respectively, granted and confirmed abortion as a constitutional right in the United States of America.

Restraint in somatic healthcare: how should it be regulated?

Restraint is regularly used in somatic healthcare settings, and countries have chosen different paths to regulate restraint in somatic healthcare. One overarching problem when regulating restraint is to ensure that...

La justificación de las condiciones de trabajo y demandas laborales en España: órdenes de valor

In this article, the dominant legitimating discursive strategies around the ever-increasing labour demands and ever-declining standards of safety and well-being at work in Spain are analysed through the lens of Boltanski and Thévenot’s (2006) view of the transformation of capitalism. A qualitative methodology based on semi-structured interviews is used. Results show that the justificatory arguments most commonly put forward by managers and experts are the logic of supply and demand, and values related to flexibility, resilience and adaptability to change. In contrast, the stability and protection established in the twentieth century are widely cherished values, particularly among union representatives and some human resources specialists. We found that discourse practices map two specific legitimating categories (market values and a projects orientation), and one critical category (Civic World), but the critical category has no practical impact, as the predominant feeling is resignation. Our research describes the common attitudes to legitimacy in the job market and points to a deep discontent in some of its key agents.

The Minimum Wage as a Tool for Racial Economic Justice

Participants at the 1963 civil rights march on Washington supported minimum wage laws using arguments of economic justice. Many economists at the time argued against the minimum wage based on efficiency concerns rooted in neoclassical theory. After decades of debate, where does the economics profession stand on the justice and efficiency claims of the minimum wage? We discuss the evolution of the minimum wage literature in economics, focusing on racial justice. We highlight recent empirical papers that overwhelmingly support the position of the marchers on Washington while at the same time showing little to no loss of economic efficiency. (JEL D63, J15, J22, J31, J38, K31)

Centralized injustices: understanding energy resilience in times of disruption in low-income settlements in Peru

What happens once people have electricity has received far less analytical and policy attention than the provision of the infrastructure itself. For low-income settlements that have gained a connection to the grid, energy access challenges can still prevail, keeping many inhabitants in energy poverty. This paper analyses energy practices in three low-income neighbourhoods in Lima, Peru, with particular attention to inhabitants’ responses in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. In doing so, it seeks to draw lessons for energy policy and planning to enhance energy resilience in the transition towards more just and sustainable futures. Building on energy resilience scholarship and drawing links with justice debates, this paper discusses three community coping strategies: (1) fuel stacking; (2) collective practices and the shared economy; and (3) material and spatial changes. It analyses how these strategies relate to dominant policy directions, as well as their implications for energy resilience and justice more broadly.

‘Informed consent is a bit of a joke to me’: lived experiences of insight, coercion, and capabilities in mental health care settings

AbstractThe Independent Review of the Mental Health Act 1983 found that people’s experiences and self-knowledge were mislabelled as a ‘lack of insight’. Insight, a psychiatric concept, is defined as an ability to recognise one’s mental illness, awareness of one’s symptoms and compliance with treatment. Across different jurisdictions, legal scholars have raised concerns about the influence of insight on legal provisions for psychiatric care and mental capacity assessments, given its prevalent use in psychiatry and its absence from statutory criteria. However, outside of these findings, little is known about people’s lived experiences of ‘insight’ and the law. This article draws on narrative and photo-elicitation interviews with psychiatric survivors to argue that insight is an extra-legislative proxy for regulating involuntary detention and other coercion masked as consent. Finally, this article draws on the capabilities approach to deliver a justice argument for creating real opportunities to provide informed consent in mental health settings.

Barriers and facilitators to women’s leadership in savings associations in Uganda

The Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) model is currently being employed in Uganda for deepening financial inclusion and poverty reduction. Despite its focus on women’s empowerment, concerns have arisen of an under-representation of women on VSLA leadership committees. Human rights-based, economic, and social justice arguments support active participation of women on VSLA leadership committees. The study sought to identify, explicate and characterise the barriers and facilitators to women in VSLA leadership. An exploratory study design using qualitative methods was selected to address the research objectives. Forty-nine focus group discussions were undertaken, featuring both VSLA members and non-members. VSLAs for inclusion in the study were randomly selected from within four regions of Uganda, stratified by: mature (>2 years old) versus new (<2 years old). The study exposed a diverse array of barriers and facilitators to women in VSLA leadership positions, revealing the influence of individual, material, institutional and social factors, in addition to social norms and gender characteristics, on women in VSLA leadership. The findings revealed that the design of interventions to achieve fair representation of women in leadership positions should be informed by an understanding of the different types, relative strengths, support for/against, and intersectionality of the factors impacting women in VSLA leadership.

Indonesia's Foreign Policy Post-Reform in the United Nations Security Council

Indonesia has a national interest in carrying out the constitutional mandate in terms of maintaining active involvement to affirm that independence is the right of all nations and colonialism is contrary to the arguments of humanity and justice. Therefore, through United Nations Security Council, Indonesia rejects all forms of colonialism, including issues between Israel and Palestine. This research focuses on Indonesia's foreign policy and its capacity as a Non-Permanent Member of the UN Security Council. The method used is a qualitative method with a literature study that is validated through an explicit confirmation process at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, while the analytical framework used is a comparative foreign policy perspective to map the factors that influence the process of making Indonesian foreign policy in different terms of office, that is president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono 2007-2008 and Joko Widodo 2019-2020. The findings of this study indicate that consideration of enacting Indonesia's foreign policy on Palestine is a sustainable policy with the roots of the constitutional mandate and Indonesia's commitments in the past, that’s why almost no major changes can be found even though they have gone through the presidential transition process. Palestine also can be has a vital position for Indonesia considering that Palestine is the only conflicting country that has always existed in a formal discussion of Indonesian state documents. The difference can be found in how each reign reacts to external factors such as the invasion or blockade that Israel has done.

Responding to Health Outcomes and Access to Health and Hospital Services in Rural, Regional and Remote New South Wales

Ethical perspectives on regional, rural, and remote healthcare often, understandably and importantly, focus on inequities in access to services. In this commentary, we take the opportunity to examine the implications of normalizing metrocentric views, values, knowledge, and orientations, evidenced by the recent (2022) New South Wales inquiry into health outcomes and access to hospital and health services in regional, rural and remote New South Wales, for contemporary rural governance and justice debates. To do this, we draw on the feminist inspired approach to rural health ethics involving analysis of power relationships developed by Simpson and McDonald and related ideas from critical health sociology. In presenting this analysis, we extend contemporary thought about spatial health inequities and structural violence.