Abstract
A consistent and comprehensive general concept of justice is developed in this chapter. It can be useful for solving conflicts of claims and interests which are crucial for climate and development policy. Our theory of justice is based on the core of human rights understood as everyone’s equal right to have the inviolable freedom to live a flourishing life. This core is systematically developed into three dimensions of justice: basic needs fulfilment, sufficient opportunities (operationalised as equal and effective access to processes, education and some economic goods) and fair procedures. In principle, none of these three dimensions of justice predominate, because all of them are inherent aspects, irreducible to one another, of the ethical viewpoint chosen here. If justice is to be achieved, the demands of all three dimensions have to be fulfilled at the same time. Furthermore, it is shown how these three dimensions are interrelated in terms of moral rights as well as duties, and how they can be applied to intra-generational and inter-generational issues.
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Kowarsch, M., Gösele, A. (2012). Triangle of Justice. In: Edenhofer, O., Wallacher, J., Lotze-Campen, H., Reder, M., Knopf, B., Müller, J. (eds) Climate Change, Justice and Sustainability. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4540-7_7
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