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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: mathias_risse@harvard.edu
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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

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