Assistant Professor Philosophy of Law at Radboud University Nijmegen, and IRC Postdoctoral Fellow at University College Dublin

November 2019 – July 2021

In Cooperation with Prof. Rainer Forst

Funded by Niels Stensen Fellowship and IRC Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship

Lonneke Peperkamp is Assistant Professor in Philosophy of Law at Radboud University Nijmegen, and research fellow at University College Dublin and Goethe University Frankfurt. She currently works on a two-year research project ‚Claiming Subsistence Rights‘. Her research interests are war and political violence, peace building, space ethics, global justice, poverty, and human rights. She is a member of the Board of Directors of EuroISME (the International Society for Military Ethics in Europe).

Research project title:
Claiming Subsistence Rights

Research abstract:
Although human rights are enshrined in international law, around 600 million people live in extreme poverty. Many consider the existence of extreme poverty in the face of abundant affluence morally problematic. The field of global distributive justice is concerned with the distribution of burdens and benefits among the global population. The main question is: What should ‘we’ (the affluent) do to address this injustice? Despite large agreement on the claim that we must, indeed, help the global poor, many people do not do that. What demands attention, therefore, is not the question of what ‘we’ should do to alleviate global poverty, but the flipside of that question: What can ‘they’ (the poor) do to secure their rights to subsistence? Potential means vary from peaceful resistance; political pressure; civil disobedience; taking resources from rightful owners; migration; to, most radically, violent resistance or war for subsistence. Such radical means are the focus of this project. The central question is: Can it be justified to claim subsistence rights by using violent means? In answering that question, this research project integrates philosophy (global justice and just war theory), human rights doctrine, and political theory.

Publications (selection):
L. Peperkamp and R. Tinnevelt (2020), ‘On the Possibility of Justified Subsistence Wars’, book chapter in: A. Chadwick and S. Egan (eds.), Poverty and Human Rights, Edward Elgar Publishing (in press).
L. Peperkamp (2020), ‘A Just and Lasting Peace after War’, book chapter in: C. Stahn et. al. (ed.), Jus Post Bellum and the Justice of Peace, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
L. Peperkamp (2016), ‘The Blurry Boundaries between War and Peace: Do we need to extend just war theory?’, Archives for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy 102/3, 315- 332.
L. Peperkamp (2016), ‘On the Duty to Reconstruct after War: Who is responsible for jus post bellum?’, Canadian Journal of Law & Jurisprudence 29/2, 403- 430.
 L. Peperkamp (2014), ‘Jus Post Bellum: A case of minimalism versus maximalism?’, Ethical Perspectives 21/3, 255- 288.  

Events:
Presentation Political Theory Colloquium 16 June 2020