Post: Professor in Political Theory, University Lecturer, and Fellow and Tutor in Politics, Magdalen College

Appointed: 2006

College: Magdalen College

Office Details: Room 143, Manor Road Building

Phone No: (01865) 285980 -  Contact electronically

---

Research Activities and Interests:

My research interests are primarily in contemporary political philosophy. They focus, in particular, on rights, theories of distributive justice, equality, and intergenerational justice.  I have a special interest in the application of political philosophy to global politics and have written on global distributive justice, climate change, human rights, sovereignty, global governance, self-determination, humanitarian intervention and war.

I am currently working on two books.

[1] I am writing a book on Global Justice and Climate Change with Dr Derek Bell (under contract to Oxford University Press). As part of this, I am currently exploring whether global climate change jeopardizes persons' human rights, what level of protection from the ill effects of climate change is required, and what justice requires in the face of risk and uncertainty. Other ongoing research examines whether the rights of future people should be subject to a positive discount rate, how the opportunity to engage in activities which emit greenhouse gases should be distributed, and the ethical issues surrounding carbon trading.  Later research will examine what kind of political institutions are needed to prevent dangerous climate change. Earlier work of mine focussed on who should bear the burdens of global climate change.

I have been awarded an ESRC Climate Change Leadership Fellowship (2008-2011) to work on 'Equity and Climate Change'.

[2] I am also currently writing a book provisionally entitled On Cosmopolitanism (under contract to Oxford University Press). This defends a cosmopolitan theory of economic, environmental, political and cultural justice. Many are sceptical of global principles of justice or affirm very minimal principles. I challenge this consensus and seek to defend an egalitarian set of principles of global distributive justice. I then advocate a series of institutional reforms to international organizations to enable them to bring about a fairer world.  Finally, I explore what rights the victims of global injustice have to resist oppression and to secure their just entitlements.

I am currently working on the following papers:

A: Climate Change

• 'Justice, Equality and the Atmosphere'
• 'Climate Change and the Case for Technology Transfer'

B: Global Justice

• ‘The Inescapability of Justice’ to appear in Governing the Globe edited by Andrew Hurrell.
• 'The Pursuit of Global Justice: An examination of the Roles and Responsibilities of different Agents of Justice' (for a conference on the work of Onora O'Neill).

Research News

• Nov 2009, Professor Simon Caney appointed to Nuffield Council of Bioethics Working Party, Read more


• Jul 2008, Professor Simon Caney awarded ESRC Climate Change Leadership Fellowship, Read more

Teaching Responsibilities:

I currently teach:

¤ 'Introduction to Politics: The Theory and Practice of Democracy'

¤ ''Theory of Politics';

¤ 'Political Thought: Plato to Rousseau';

¤ 'Political Thought: Bentham to Weber;

¤ 'Marx and Marxism'.

Media Expertise:

climate change and the ethical issues surrounding it.

Publications:

Recent publications include:

A: Book

(2010) Climate Ethics: Essential Readings  (New York: Oxford University Press) co-edited by Stephen Gardiner, Simon Caney, Dale Jamieson and Henry Shue.

(2005) Justice Beyond Borders: A Global Political Theory (Oxford: Oxford University Press).  (forthcoming Arabic translation)

B: Reports

¤ 'Ethics and Climate Change', a Report for the World Bank. [16,500 words]

¤ 'Climate Technology Transfer: A Derivation of Rights- and Duty- Bearers from Fundamental Human Rights', a Report for the International Council on Human Rights Policy. [17,000 words]

C: Papers

(2010)
¤ 'Markets, Morality and Climate Change: What, if anything, is Wrong with Emissions Trading?', New Political Economy vol.15 no.2

¤ 'Climate Change, Energy Rights and Equality' in The Ethics of Global Climate Change (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010) edited by Denis Arnold

¤ 'Cosmopolitanism, Rights and Global Climate Change' in Cosmopolitanism in Context: Perspectives from International Law and Political Theory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), edited by Roland Pierik and Wouter Werner. [9,000 words]

¤ 'Cosmopolitanism' in Ethics and World Politics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010) edited by Duncan Bell. [9,500]

2009
¤ 'Justice and the Distribution of Greenhouse Gas Emissions', Journal of Global Ethics vol.5 no.2 (2009), pp.125-146.

¤ 'Climate Change and the Future: Time, Wealth and Risk', Journal of Social Philosophy vol.40 no.2 (2009), pp.163-186.  This can be accessed at: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/122440738/PDFSTART

¤ 'Justice, Morality and Carbon Trading’, Ragion Pratica vol.32 June (2009), pp.203-227.

¤ ‘Climate Change, Justice and the Duties of the Advantaged’, Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy vol.12 no.4 (2009), pp.693-717.  [This is also to be reprinted in Justice, Democracy, and Equality (London:  Routledge, forthcoming) edited by Matt Matravers and Lukas Meyer.] [12,200 words]

¤ 'Climate Change, Human Rights and Moral Thresholds' in Human Rights and Climate Change (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), edited by Stephen Humphreys, pp.69-90.

¤ ‘The Responsibilities and Legitimacy of Economic International Institutions’ in Justice, Legitimacy and Public International Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), edited by Lukas Meyer, pp.92-122.

¤ 'Cosmopolitanism and Justice' in Contemporary Debates in Political Philosophy (Oxford: Blackwell, 2009) edited by Thomas Christiano and John Christman, pp.387-407.

¤ 'Human Rights, Responsibilities and Climate Change' in Global Basic Rights (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009) edited by Charles Beitz and Robert Goodin, pp.227-247.

¤ ‘Cosmopolitanism, Culture and Well-Being’ in Nationalism and Multiculturalism in a World of Immigration (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009) edited by Nils Holtug, Sune Laegaard and Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen, pp.21-52.

(2008)
¤ ‘Global Distributive Justice and the State’, Political Studies vol.56 no.3 (2008), pp.487-518.

¤ ‘Climate Change, Human Rights and Discounting’, Environmental Politics vol.17 no.4 July (2008), pp.536-555. [A revised version is being published in Climate Change, Ethics, and Human Security (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009) edited by Karen O'Brien and Asunción Lera St. Clair.] 

 

(2007)
¤ 'Justice, Borders and the Cosmopolitan Ideal - A Reply to Two Critics', Journal of Global Ethics, vol.3 no.2, pp.269-276.

¤ 'Egalitarian Liberalism and Universalism' in Multiculturalism and Political Theory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), edited by Anthony Laden and David Owen, pp.151-172.

¤  ‘Global Poverty and Human Rights: the Case for Positive Duties’ in Freedom from Poverty as a Human Right: Who Owes What to the Very Poor? (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), edited by Thomas Pogge, pp.275-302.

(2006)
¤ ‘Cosmopolitanism, Democracy and Distributive Justice’, The Canadian Journal of Philosophy, supplementary volume 31 (2006), pp.29-63.

¤ ‘Environmental Degradation, Reparations and the Moral Significance of History’, Journal of Social Philosophy, vol.73 no.3 (2006), pp.464-482.

¤ ‘Cosmopolitan Justice and Institutional Design: An Egalitarian Liberal Conception of Global Governance’, Social Theory and Practice, vol.32 no.4 (2006), pp.725-756.  This can be accessed at: http://international-political-theory.net/3/Caney.pdf

¤  ‘Global Justice: From Theory to Practice’, Globalizations, vol.3 no.2 (2006), pp.121-137.  [This is reprinted in Globalization and the Global Politics of Justice (London: Routledge, 2008) edited by Barry Gills.]

¤ ‘Global Justice, Rights and Climate Change’, Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence vol.XIX no.2 (2006), pp.255-278.

(2005)
¤ ‘Cosmopolitan Justice, Responsibility and Global Climate Change’, Leiden Journal of International Law vol.18 no.4 (2005), pp.747-775. [This is reprinted in The Global Justice Reader (Oxford: Blackwell, 2007) edited by Thom Brooks.]  This can be accessed at: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayIssue?jid=LJL&volumeId=18&issueId=04#

¤ ‘Global Interdependence and Distributive Justice’, Review of International Studies, vol.31 no.2 (2005), pp.389-399.