Justice and the World’s Resources 732719

Successful completion of Principles of International Law or equivalent.

A student who has successfully completed this subject should:

Understand the historical, political and legal dimensions of the claim for global wealth distribution in the context of the New International Economic Order (NIEO)
Understand the concept of distributive justice according to Aristotle and Rawls, and their relevance to the twentieth-century debate on global wealth distribution
Have a sound understanding of the legal and institutional framework of resource-management regimes – both universal and shared
Be able to analyse the definitional content and normative value of the concept of the common heritage of mankind, and of equitable use and allocation applicable to universal and shared resources respectively, by reference to the theories of sources of international law
Comprehend and be able to apply the principles of justice and core allocation criteria in the negotiation of bilateral and multilateral resource-management regimes.

Principal topics will include:

Setting the stage for the debate on the allocation of global and shared resources – the NIEO
The Aristotelian concept of distributive justice, and Rawls’ Theory of Justice
The resource-management regimes of deep seabed, the Moon and other celestial bodies, the Geostationary Orbit and Antarctica
The concept of the Common Heritage of Mankind – in theory and in practice
The notion of ‘shared resources’ and the resource-management regimes of common oil and natural gas deposits, fishery and international watercourses
The application of Rawls’ Theory of Justice to the distribution of the world’s universal and shared resources
Principles of justice in the allocation of the world’s resources, and the normative value of the principle of distributive justice.

Melbourne Law School The Melbourne Law Masters