Natural resource ownership
Natural resource ownership
The category of natural resources is commonly taken to comprise anything - whether matter or energy – which is potentially useful to human beings, but which was not created by human beings. All of us require some land to stand upon, air to breathe, and water to drink, and in that sense natural resources are key to human survival. Moreover - though doing so is not always easy - individuals or communities lucky enough to command larger than average supplies of valuable resources such as oil or gold may manage to convert their good fortune into great wealth. Because the ownership of natural resources can be so consequential for peoples’ wellbeing, philosophers have argued for centuries about just how the pattern of resource ownership ought, morally speaking, to be constrained. This essay aims to provide an overview of debates about the justice or injustice of patterns of resource ownership. First, we consider ongoing debates about the circumstances in which individual agents can come to be the owners of the world’s natural resources. Second, we consider the way in which arguments about natural resource ownership have come to play an important role in more recent debates about the territorial rights of states.
natural resources, global justice, territorial rights, ownership, political theory, appropriation
Armstrong, Christopher
2fbfa0a3-9183-4562-9370-0f6441df90d2
2018
Armstrong, Christopher
2fbfa0a3-9183-4562-9370-0f6441df90d2
Armstrong, Christopher
(2018)
Natural resource ownership.
In,
Lafolette, Hugh
(ed.)
International Encyclopedia of Ethics.
Wiley-Blackwell.
(doi:10.1002/9781444367072).
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Book Section
Abstract
The category of natural resources is commonly taken to comprise anything - whether matter or energy – which is potentially useful to human beings, but which was not created by human beings. All of us require some land to stand upon, air to breathe, and water to drink, and in that sense natural resources are key to human survival. Moreover - though doing so is not always easy - individuals or communities lucky enough to command larger than average supplies of valuable resources such as oil or gold may manage to convert their good fortune into great wealth. Because the ownership of natural resources can be so consequential for peoples’ wellbeing, philosophers have argued for centuries about just how the pattern of resource ownership ought, morally speaking, to be constrained. This essay aims to provide an overview of debates about the justice or injustice of patterns of resource ownership. First, we consider ongoing debates about the circumstances in which individual agents can come to be the owners of the world’s natural resources. Second, we consider the way in which arguments about natural resource ownership have come to play an important role in more recent debates about the territorial rights of states.
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Natural Resource Ownership encyclopedia of ethics
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Accepted/In Press date: 2018
Published date: 2018
Keywords:
natural resources, global justice, territorial rights, ownership, political theory, appropriation
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Local EPrints ID: 418912
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/418912
PURE UUID: 4d21a0a9-f809-454d-a66a-24bd256926fc
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Date deposited: 26 Mar 2018 16:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 03:47
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Editor:
Hugh Lafolette
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