Joshua J. Kassner
professor
Division of Legal, Ethical and Historical Studies
Additional Roles:
director, B.A. in Philosophy, Law, and Ethics program
research fellows director, Hoffberger Center for Ethical Engagement
Contact Information:
Phone: 410.837.5316
E-mail: jkassner@ubalt.edu
M.A., Ph.D., University of Maryland, College Park
J.D., University of Baltimore
B.A., Dickinson College
Joshua Kassner's C.V. (.pdf)
UBalt Smart Talks
Kassner examines the moral dilemma of humanitarian intervention in an installment of UBalt's Smart Talks video series; February 2013
During my sophomore year in college, I took a course in political philosophy. I found the questions both intellectually stimulating and practically relevant. I went to law school to pursue my interest in legal theory, but my passion was and remains philosophy.
My current areas of scholarship and research include international ethics, international law, international political theory...well, you get the idea. I am concerned with the moral obligations that states may owe to foreign nationals, specifically those suffering from violations of their basic human rights. Assuming that such obligations exist, what is the best way to institutionalize them?
I have taught at a number of undergraduate institutions and I have never worked with students as lively and interested in discussing their ideas as those I am teaching at UBalt. I have also found the diversity in the classroom to be invaluable.
A sample of Prof. Kassner's publications include:
-
Climate Change and Sovereignty: An Essay on the Moral Limits of State Sovereignty in a Globalized World, (Cham, Switzerland: Springer Press, 2021).
- Co-Editor, The Value and Purpose of Law: Essays in Honor of M.N.S. Sellers, (Stuttgart, Germany: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2019).
-
Rwanda and the Moral Obligation of Humanitarian Intervention (Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press, 2012).
- “An Essay in Defense of a Republican Understanding of the Relationship between Law and Liberty” in The Value and Purpose of Law: Essays in Honor of M.N.S. Sellers, (Stuttgart, Germany: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2019), pp. 57-76.
- “Deliberating about Justice: The Role of Social Justice in the Practical Deliberations of States.” Contemporary Political Theory, Vol. 5, No. 2, 2011, pp. 210-231.
- “Completing the Incomplete: Defending Positive Obligations to Distant Others.” Journal of Global Ethics, Vol. 5, No. 3, 2009, pp. 181-193.
- “Is Everything Really Up-For-Grabs? The Relationship between Democratic Values and a Democratic Process.” Journal of Political Philosophy. Vol. 14, No. 4, 2006, pp. 482-494.