On March 19, 2017, Maxdo Economics Expert Forum & 54^th BNU Business School Expert Forum were held successfully. Amartya Sen, world’s famous economist and 1998 Nobel Prize Laureate in economics is invited as the keynote speaker of the forum, which is presided over by Lai Desheng, Dean of BNUBS.

At the beginning of the lecture, Dean Lai Desheng expresses his sincere welcome and heartfelt thanks to Professor Amartya Sen and Professor Xing Chunbing briefly introduces Professor Sen’s basic information. As the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize, Professor Sen researches fields of welfare economics, social choice and development economics and etc., and has far-reaching impact on academic world and the international intellectual community. Then, Zhou Zuoyu, Vice President of BNU, issues the letter of BNU Honorary Professor appointment to Professor Amartya Sen.

 

Professor Sen first expresses in his lecture that he is very pleased to be able to establish academic contacts with BNU and then uses Martin Luther King’s resistance of injustice in the United States to lead the theme of the speech—Global Justice: Ethics and Economy and explain the concept that unfair conduct in a region will affect global justice. He puts forward the main topics of this speech: first, the meaning of justice and global justice; second, the unfair distribution of wealth and opportunity; third, the contradictions between social contract theory and global justice. He says that currently it is difficult to define the term “justice”. Though different theories have different interpretations of “justice”, one thing in common is the social contract theory, which is the important foundation for the contemporary justice to make progress. Finally, he stresses that the key to the problem is how to eliminate injustice; we should not only focus on the system itself, but also pay more attention to the nature of people’s lives and the degree of freedom; we should not limit people’s freedom in a sovereign state, but should ponder the issue of international justice rationally from the global and human point of view.

 

After the speech, Professor Liu Minquan from School of Economics, Peking University comments on the speech and says that Professor Sen’s speech is very inspiring and full of philosophical thoughts. He is very much in favor of Professor Sen’s views that economic and justice are related, economic development is for the public service and personal behavior and social justice are closely related. And on global justice, he puts forward that what we should do now is to help countries that need assistance to build infrastructure and reduce poverty. Finally, Professor Amartya Sen interacts with the more than 200 teachers and students for more than half an hour and the lecture ends in the warm applause.