Global Justice

Global Justice@LUC is concerned with the multifarious ways in which law and order are not exclusively a matter of domestic jurisdiction or even formal processes. Global threats, transnational patterns of crime and violence, contested and cosmopolitan ethics have all led to an increasing awareness of the global dimensions of conflict and the emergence of new norms and institutions at the universal, regional, and domestic level to settle disputes, combat impunity, and provide conditions for sustainable peace and security. The nexus between justice, order and peace poses ethical, legal, and policy challenges for governments, international institutions, non-state actors and civil society that go beyond national borders and single disciplines.

Global Justice@LUC provides a complex and nuanced framework to study these challenges, ranging from integrated and multi-disciplinary techniques to overcome conflict and dispute, through to the consideration of how to live the Good Life in a global world of competing conceptions of justice and ethical principles. The major is designed for students who wish to study justice and global order from multiple perspectives, including those of International Law, Political Science, and Practical Philosophy.
The major can include courses in the legal foundations of justice as well as its normative underpinnings in politics and international relations, building upon the compulsory 100-level Global Challenges courses on Peace and Justice. Students should expect to be introduced to the legal foundations of global justice (e.g., international norms, global and regional judicial systems), normative concepts (e.g., fairness, legality, legitimacy and their critiques), and their application in specific fields (dispute settlement, human rights). They will also explore the nexus between peace, justice and security. Global Justice@LUC introduces students to the foundations of statehood, democracy and the root causes of conflict, the role of global actors and institutions (e.g., United Nations, regional organisations) and conflict management techniques (e.g., peace diplomacy, mediation, peacekeeping).

Graduates from this major may wish to pursue a career in international institutions, government, non-governmental organisations, or within an academic setting; they may wish to develop an unusually sensitive and creative approach to the global challenge of Global Justice, stepping beyond the confines of more conventional programmes in international law or international relations.