In their recent book, Climate Change Justice, Eric Posner and David Weisbach argue for a relatively narrow climate treaty that would require nations to limit greenhouse gas emissions, but that would not redistribute wealth, correct for past injustices, or address other issues not immediately connected with the urgent task of mitigating climate change. At this conference, scholars will respond with criticisms of the Posner/Weisbach argument or provide their own views about how a climate treaty ought to be designed. Topics will include the role of distributive and corrective justice in the design of climate treaty, discounting the future, abatement strategies, and the possibilities and limits of international cooperation.

This conference is sponsored by the Institute for Law and Economics and the Chicago Journal of International Law and is organized by Omri Ben-Shahar. It is open to the public and attendance is free. Please contact Marjorie Holme (mholme@uchicago.edu) for more details.

Participants and paper drafts:

Paul Baer, Georgia Tech  School of Public Policy
Who Should Pay for Climate Change?  “Not Me”

Dan Farber, University of California Berkeley Law School
Subglobal Climate Action: Symbolic, Substantive, or Strategic?

Marc Fleurbaey, Princeton University School of Public and International Affairs
Climate Policies Deserve a Negative Discount Rate

Christian Gollier, University of Toulouse I - Department of Economics, France
The Debate on Discounting: Reconciling Positivists and Ethicists

Dale Jamieson, New York University, Department of Philosophy
Consequentialism, Climate Change, and the Road Ahead

Yoram Margalioth, Tel Aviv University of Law
Analysis of the U.S. Case in Climate Change Negotiations

Lukas Meyer, University of Graz, Austria
Why Historical Emissions Should Count

Martha Nussbaum, University of Chicago Law School
Why Theories of Justice Matter

Ray Pierrehumbert, Universty of Chicago, Department of Geophysical Sciences
Cumulative Carbon and Just Distribution of the Global Carbon Commons

Eric Posner and David A. Weisbach, both Unversity of Chicago Law School
International Paretianism: A Defense

Henry Shue, Oxford University - Merton College, United Kingdom
Climate Hope: Fair Shares in the Exit Strategy

Robert Stavins, Harvard University - JFK School of Government
Post-Durban Climate Policy Architecture Based on Linkage of Cap-and-Trade Systems

Download the conference program