Collective Responsibility and International Inequality in the Law of Peoples

Rawls's Law of Peoples: A Realistic Utopia?

Volumn , Issue , 2008, Pages 191-205

  Miller, David ^a,b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD   (United Kingdom)

^b NUFFIELD COLLEGE   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Economic redistribution; Global justice; Inequality; Liberal principles; Political philosophers

Indexed keywords

EID: 84891289656     PISSN: None     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book    
DOI: 10.1002/9780470776612.ch11     Document Type: Chapter

References (43)

1. J. Rawls, The Law of Peoples (hereafter LoP), Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999.
2. See, for instance, C. Beitz, 'Rawls's Law of Peoples', Ethics, 110 (1999-2000): 669-96;
3. A. Buchanan, 'Rawls's Law of Peoples: Rules for a Vanished Westphalian World', Ethics, 110 (1999-2000): 697-721;
4. S. Caney, 'Cosmopolitanism and the Law of Peoples', Journal of Political Philosophy, 10 (2002): 95-123;
5. M. Nussbaum, 'Women and the Law of Peoples', Politics, Philosophy and Economics, 1 (2002): 283-306;
6. K.-C. Tan, Toleration, Diversity and Global Justice, University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000.
7. J. Rawls, A Theory of Justice (hereafter TJ), Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971, sect. 58.
8. C. Beitz, Political Theory and International Relations, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1979, Part III;
9. T. Pogge, Realising Rawls, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1989, Part III.
10. Rawls, Law of Peoples, p. 37.
11. Rawls in fact describes two original positions for formulating the principles of the Law of Peoples, one containing representatives of liberal peoples and the other containing representatives of 'decent' peoples-see the following paragraph.
12. J. Rawls, 'The Law of Peoples', in John Rawls: Collected Papers, ed. S. Freeman, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999.
13. See J. Rawls, 'The Idea of Public Reason Revisited', sect. 5, in Freeman, ed., John Rawls: Collected Papers;
14. J. Rawls, Justice as Fairness: A Restatement, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001, sect. 50.
15. Rawls, Law of Peoples, p. 108.
16. Rawls, Law of Peoples, p. 117.
17. The differences are well brought out in D. Reidy, 'Rawls on International Justice: A Defense', Political Theory, 32 (2004): 291-319.
18. This division follows the one suggested by Rodrik in D. Rodrik, ed., In Search of Prosperity: Analytical Narratives of Economic Growth, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003, ch. 1, although I have used different labels. See also M. Risse, 'What We Owe to the Global Poor', Journal of Ethics, 9 (2005): 81-117.
19. D. Landes, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, London: Little, Brown and Co., 1998, esp. ch. 29.
20. See the papers collected in L. E. Harrison and S. P. Huntington (eds), Culture Matters, New York, NY: Basic Books, 2000.
21. D. Acemoglu, S. Johnson and J. Robinson, 'The Colonial Origins of Economic Development: An Empirical Investigation', American Economic Review, 91 (2001): 1369- 1401.
22. See also D. Rodrik, A. Subramanian and F. Trebbi, 'Institutions Rule: The Primacy of Institutions Over Geography and Integration in Economic Development', Journal of Economic Growth, 9 (2004): 131- 65.
23. For a somewhat more sceptical appraisal, which focuses in particular on the instruments used to measure institutional quality in the two papers above, see E. C. Glaeser, R. La Porta, F. Lopez-de-Silanes and A. Shleifer, 'Do Institutions Cause Growth?', Journal of Economic Growth, 9 (2004): 271- 303.
24. T. Pogge, 'The Bounds of Nationalism', in World Poverty and Human Rights, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2002, p. 141.
25. Pogge, World Poverty and Human Rights, passim.
26. J. Rawls, 'The Priority of Right and Ideas of the Good', in Freeman, ed., John Rawls: Collected Papers, p. 455.
27. Rawls, A Theory of Justice, pp. 312, 104.
28. See, for instance, S. Scheffler, 'What is Egalitarianism?', Philosophy and Public Affairs, 31 (2003): 5-39.
29. Rawls, Law of Peoples, p. 90.
30. Rawls, Law of Peoples, p. 117.
31. D. Miller, 'Holding Nations Responsible', Ethics, 114 (2003-4): 240-68.
32. Miller, 'Holding Nations Responsible', sect. II.
33. Rawls, Law of Peoples, sects. 1, 18.
34. This question is pressed in Beitz, 'Rawls's Law of Peoples'.
35. Rawls, A Theory of Justice, p. 290. This plainly refers to the savings principle as it applies to liberal societies.
36. See, for instance, J. Waldron, 'Superseding Historic Injustice', Ethics, 103 (1992): 4- 28;
37. G. Sher, 'Ancient Wrongs and Modern Rights', in Sher, Approximate Justice: Studies in Non-Ideal Theory, Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1997;
38. A. J. Simmons, 'Historical Rights and Fair Shares', in Simmons, Justification and Legitimacy: Essays on Rights and Obligations, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
39. Rawls, Law of Peoples, p. 72.
40. For a general argument to this effect, see D. Miller, 'Two Ways to Think about Justice', Politics, Philosophy and Economics, 1 (2002): 5-28.
41. Rawls, Law of Peoples, sect. 16.1.
42. For a fuller discussion, see my article, 'Against Global Egalitarianism', Journal of Ethics, 9 (2005): 55-79, sect. V.
43. Rawls, Law of Peoples, p. 115.