Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c47g7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-16T15:40:05.660Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Global distributive justice? State boundaries as a normative problem

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2012

ANDREAS FOLLESDAL
ANDREAS FOLLESDAL*
Affiliation:
Norsk senter for menneskerettigheter, Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, P.O. Box 6706, St. Olavs plass (Cort Adelersgate 30) N-0130 Oslo
*
*Email: andreas.follesdal@nchr.uio.no
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Should state borders matter for claims of distributive justice? The article explores, only to reject, the best reasons for an ‘Anti-Cosmopolitan’ position which grants some minimum international obligations, including social and economic human rights. At the same time this Anti-Cosmopolitanism rejects distinctly distributive principles of justice, familiar from discussions of justice among compatriots: There are no further limits on permissible global inequalities. ‘Anti-Cosmopolitans’ do not deny that the tangled web of domestic and international institutions has a massive impact on individuals, their life plans and opportunities, albeit often indirectly and surreptitiously. What they deny is that claims to equality or limits to inequality should apply across state borders. The article explores what it is about states that can justify such a disjunct in the normative claims individuals have against each other. Several arguments about such alleged salient aspects of states and their constitutions are considered, but are found lacking. The main conclusion is to challenge the reasons Anti-Cosmopolitans offer against bringing distributive principles to the ‘Global Basic Structure’.

Keywords

cosmopolitanismdistributive justiceglobal constitutionalismhuman rights
Type
Research Article
Information
Global Constitutionalism , Volume 1 , Issue 2 , July 2012 , pp. 261 - 277
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abizadeh, A. 2007. “Cooperation, pervasive impact, and coercion: on the scope (not site) of distributive justice.” Philosophy and Public Affairs 35:318–58.Google Scholar
Archibugi, D., Held, D. and Kohler, M.. 1998. Re-imagining political community: studies in cosmopolitan democracy. Oxford: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Barry, C. and Valentini, L.. 2009. “Egalitarian challenges to global egalitarianism: A Critique.” Review of International Studies 35:485–512.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blake, M. 2001. “Distributive justice, state coercion, and autonomy.” Philosophy and Public Affairs 30:257–96.Google Scholar
Bodansky, D. 2008. “The concept of legitimacy in international law.” In Legitimacy in International Law, edited by Wolfrum, R. and Roben, V., 309–17. Heidelberg: Springer.Google Scholar
Buchanan, A. and Keohane, R. O.. 2006. “The legitimacy of global governance institutions.” Ethics and International Affairs 20(4):405–37.Google Scholar
Buchanan, A. and Powell, R.. 2008. “Survey Article: Constitutional Democracy and the Rule of International Law: Are they Compatible?” Journal of Political Philosophy 16(3):326–49.Google Scholar
Caney, S. 2005. Justice Beyond Borders: A Global Political Theory Oxford, Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cavallero, E. 2010. “Coercion, Inequality and the international property regime.” Journal of Political Philosophy 18(1):16–31.Google Scholar
Chayes, A. and Chayes, A. H.. 1995. The New Sovereignty: Compliance with international regulatory agreements. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Cohen, G. A. 1997. “Where the action is: On the site of distributive justice.” Philosophy and Public Affairs 26(1):3–30.Google Scholar
Follesdal, A. 2003. “Federal Inequality among Equals: A Contractualist Defense.” Metaphilosophy 32(1–2):236–55.Google Scholar
Føllesdal, A. 2009. “When ‘Common Interests’ are not Common: why the ‘Global Basic Structure’ should be democratic.” Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 16(2):585–604.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Føllesdal, A. 2011a. “Cosmopolitan Democracy: neither a Category Mistake nor a Categorical Imperative.” In Global Democracy, edited by Archibugi, D., Koenig-Archibugi, M. and Marchetti, R., 96–114. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Føllesdal, A. 2011b. “The Distributive Justice of a Global Basic Structure: A Category Mistake?” Politics, Philosophy and Economics 10(1):46–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Follesdal, A., Wessel, R. and Wouters, J., eds. 2008. Multilevel Regulation and the EU: The interplay between Global, European and National Normative Processes. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Franck, T. M. 2006. “The power of legitimacy and the legitimacy of power: International law in an age of power disequilibrium.” American Journal of International Law 100(1):88–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freeman, S. 2006. “Distributive Justice and The Law of Peoples.” In Rawls’s Law of Peoples: A Realistic Utopia?, edited by Martin, R. and Reidy, D., 234–60. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Goodhart, M. 2008. “Human rights and global democracy.” Ethics and International Affairs 22(4):395–420.Google Scholar
Goodin, R. E. 1988. “What is so special about our fellow countrymen?” Ethics 98(4):663–86.Google Scholar
Gould, C. C. 2004. Globalizing Democracy and Human Rights. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Guzman, A. T. 2010. How International Law Works: A Rational Choice Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Guzman, A. T. and Meyer, T. L. 2010. “Explaining Soft Law.” Journal of Legal Analysis 2(1):171–225 available athttp://jla.hup.harvard.edu.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, R. B. and Biersteker, T. J., eds. 2002. The emergence of private authority in global governance. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Julius, A. J. 2003. “Basic structure and the value of equality.” Philosophy and Public Affairs 31(4):321–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Julius, A. J. 2006. “Nagel’s Atlas.” Philosophy and Public Affairs 34(2):176–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keck, M. and Sikkink, K.. 1998. Activists beyond borders: Advocacy networks in international politics. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Klabbers, J., Peters, A. and Ulfstein, G. 2009. The constitutionalization of international law. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kumm, M. 2004. “The legitimacy of international law: A constitutionalist framework of analysis.” European Journal of International Law 15:907–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kumm, M. 2009. “The cosmopolitan turn in constitutionalism: On the relationship between constitutionalism in and beyond the state.” In Ruling the World? Constitutionalism, International Law, and Global Governance, edited by Dunoff, J. L. and Trachtman, J. P., 257–324. Cambridge: Cambridge University.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, A. 1984. “Is patriotism a virtue?” The Lindley lecture, March 26. Lawrence, KA: University of Kansas.Google Scholar
Milanovic, B. 2007. “Globalization and inequality.” In Global Inequality, edited by Held, D. and Ayse, K., 26–49. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Miller, D. 1995. On Nationality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Murphy, L. 1999. “Institutions and the demands of justice.” Philosophy and Public Affairs 27(4):251–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nagel, T. 1986. The view from nowhere. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Nagel, T. 2005. “The problem of global justice.” Philosophy and Public Affairs 33(2):113–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peters, A. 2006. “Compensatory Constitutionalism: The Function and Potential of Fundamental International Norms and Structures.” Leiden Journal of International Law 19:579–610.Google Scholar
Petersmann, E.–U. 2006. “State Sovereignty, Popular Sovereignty and Individual Sovereignty: from Constitutional Nationalism to Multilevel Constitutionalism in International Economic Law?” EUI Law Working Paper No. 2006/45 athttp://ssrn.com/abstract=964147.Google Scholar
Pettit, P. 2000. “Democracy: Electoral and Contestatory.” In Designing Democratic Institutions, edited by Shapiro, I. and Macedo, S., 104–44. New York, NY: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Piper, A. M. S. 1987. “Moral theory and moral alienation.” Journal of Philosophy 84(2):102–18.Google Scholar
Pogge, T. 1989. Realizing Rawls. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Pogge, T. 2000. “On the site of distributive justice: Reflections on Cohen and Murphy.” Philosophy and Public Affairs 29(2):137–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pogge, T. 2008. World Poverty and Human Rights, 2nd edn.Oxford: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Railton, P. 1984. “Alienation, consequentialism, and the demands of morality.” Philosophy and Public Affairs 13(2):134–71.Google Scholar
Rawls, J. 1971. A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Rawls, J. 1988. “The priority of right and ideas of the good.” In John Rawls: Collected Papers, edited by Freeman, S., 449–72. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Rawls, J. 1993. Political Liberalism. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Rawls, J. 1999. The Law of Peoples. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Risse, M. 2005. “How does the global order harm the poor?” Philosophy and Public Affairs 33(4):349–76.Google Scholar
Ruggie, J. G. 2004. “Reconstituting the global public domain: Issues, actors and practices.” European Journal of International Relations 10:499–531.Google Scholar
Sands, P. 2005. Lawless World. London: Allen Lane.Google Scholar
Scheffler, S. 1997. “Liberalism, Nationalism and Egalitarianism.” In The Morality of Nationalism, edited by McKim, R. and McMahan, J., 191–208. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Scheffler, S. 2006. “Is the Basic Structure Basic?” In The Egalitarian Conscience: Essays in honour of G. A. Cohen, edited by Sypnowich, C., 102–30. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sidgwick, H. 1919. The Elements of Politics. London, Macmillan.Google Scholar
Simmons, B. A. 2009. Mobilizing for Human Rights: International Law in Domestic Politics. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ulfstein, G. 2009. “Institutions and competence.” In The Constitutionalization of International Law, edited by Klabbers, J., Peters, A. and Ulfstein, G., 45–80. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, N. 2003. “Postnational constitutionalism and the problem of translation.” In European Constitutionalism beyond the State, edited by Weiler, J. H. H. and Wind, M., 27–54. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Walzer, M. 1983. Spheres of Justice: A Defense of Pluralism and Equality. New York, NY: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Zurn, M. 2002. “From Interdependence to Globalization.” In Handbook of International Relations, edited by Carlsnaes, W., Risse, T. and Simmons, B., 235–54. London: Sage.Google Scholar