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39Justice for earthlings: essays in political philosophyCambridge University Press. 2013.In the past few decades social changes have impacted how we understand justice, as societies become both more multicultural and more interconnected globally. Much philosophical thought, however, seems to proceed in isolation from these developments. While philosophers from Plato onwards have portrayed justice as an abstract, universal ideal, Miller argues that principles of justice are always rooted in particular social contexts, and connects these ideas to the changing conditions of human life.…Read more
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216In defence of nationalityIn Derek Matravers & Jonathan E. Pike (eds.), Debates in Contemporary Political Philosophy: An Anthology, Routledge. pp. 3-16. 2002.
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188Grounding human rightsCritical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 15 (4): 407-427. 2012.This paper examines the idea of human rights, and how they should be justified. It begins by reviewing Peter Jones?s claim that the purpose of human rights is to allow people from different cultural backgrounds to live together as equals, and suggests that this by itself provides too slender a basis. Instead it proposes that human rights should be grounded on human needs. Three difficulties with this proposal are considered. The first is the problem of whether needs are sufficiently objective fo…Read more
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11Deliberative Democracy and Social ChoiceIn James S. Fishkin & Peter Laslett (eds.), Debating Deliberative Democracy, Wiley-blackwell. 2003.Notes.
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88Border Regimes and Human RightsThe Law and Ethics of Human Rights 7 (1): 1-23. 2013.This article argues that there is no human right to cross borders without impediment. Receiving states, however, must recognize the procedural rights of those unable to protect their human rights in the place where they currently reside. Asylum claims must be properly investigated, and in the event that the state declines to admit them as refugees, it must ensure that the third country to which they are transferred can protect their rights. Both procedural and substantive rights apply while refu…Read more
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13Boundaries and Justice: Diverse Ethical Perspectives (edited book)Princeton University Press. 2002.Despite the supreme political and economic significance of boundaries--and ongoing challenges to existing national boundaries--scant attention has been paid to their ethics. This volume explores how diverse ethical traditions understand the political and property rights reflected in territorial and jurisdictional boundaries. It is the first book to bring together thinkers from a range of traditions, both religious and secular, to discuss the ethics of boundaries. Each contributor represents a tr…Read more
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16Armstrong on Justice, Well-being and Natural ResourcesGlobal Justice : Theory Practice Rhetoric 13 (1): 1-16. 2021.This paper argues first that Armstrong is led to see natural resources primarily as objects of consumption. But many natural resources are better seen as objects of enjoyment, where one person’s access to a resource need not prevent others from enjoying equal access, or as objects of production, where granting control of a resource to one person may produce collateral benefits to others. Second, Armstrong’s approach to resource distribution, which requires that everyone must have equal access to…Read more
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7144Immigration: The Case for LimitsIn Andrew I. Cohen & Christopher Heath Wellman (eds.), Contemporary Debates in Applied Ethics, Wiley-blackwell. pp. 193-206. 2005.This article by David Miller is widely considered a standard defense of the (once) conventional view on immigration restrictionism, namely that (liberal) states generally have free authority to restrict immigration, save for a few exceptions.
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126Why Immigration Controls Are Not Coercive: A Reply to Arash AbizadehPolitical Theory 38 (1): 111-120. 2010.Abizadeh has argued that because border controls coerce would-be immigrants and invade their autonomy, they are entitled to participate in the democratic institutions that impose those controls. In reply, the author distinguishes between coercion and prevention, shows that prevention need not undermine autonomy, and concludes that although border controls may restrict freedom, they do not give rise to democratic entitlements
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142Two ways to think about justicePolitics, Philosophy and Economics 1 (1): 5-28. 2002.This paper contrasts universalist approaches to justice with contextualist approaches. Universalists hold that basic principles of justice are invariant they apply in every circumstance in which questions of justice arise. Contextualists hold that different principles apply in different contexts, and that there is no underlying master principle that applies in all. The paper argues that universalists cannot explain why so many different theories of justice have been put forward, nor why there …Read more
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66Strangers in our midst: an overviewCritical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 20 (6): 707-711. 2017.
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26Should Cities Control Immigration Policy?Journal of Applied Philosophy 40 (3): 385-395. 2023.Avner de Shalit wants cities to have their own immigration policies. On a radical reading, this would transfer control over immigrant admissions from states to cities. But can cities choose the immigrants they prefer on economic or cultural grounds, or does this discriminate unfairly against those judged to be less desirable? I argue that de Shalit fails to apply the luck egalitarian principle consistently when discussing immigrant admissions. I also claim that there is a tension between seeing …Read more
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94Reasonable Partiality Towards CompatriotsEthical Theory and Moral Practice 8 (1-2): 63-81. 2005.Ethical theories normally make room both for global duties to human beings everywhere and special duties to those we are attached to in some way. Such a split-level view requires us to specify the kind of attachment that can ground special duties, and to explain the comparative force of the two kinds of duties in cases of conflict. Special duties are generated within groups that are intrinsically valuable and not inherently unjust, where the duties can be shown to be integral to relationships wi…Read more
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73On nationality and global equality: a reply to HoltugEthics and Global Politics 4 (3): 165-171. 2011.I here defend some of the positions taken in National Responsibility and Global Justice against criticisms by Nils Holtug. I reinforce my suggestion that claims about national membership being ‘morally arbitrary’ are question begging and try to show how such membership can legitimately serve as a source of special obligations. I examine the claim that the problems involved in constructing a ‘currency’ of global justice also arise in the domestic context and suggest that appealing to ‘welfare’ as…Read more
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120Matt Cavanagh, against equality of opportunity (oxford: Clarendon press, 2002), pp. VIII + 223Utilitas 16 (2): 225-227. 2004.
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58Migration and justice: a reply to my criticsCritical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 20 (6): 763-773. 2017.
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168Justice in immigrationEuropean Journal of Political Theory 14 (4): 391-408. 2015.Legitimate states have a general right to control their borders and decide who to admit as future citizens. Such decisions, however, are constrained by principles of justice. But which principles? To answer this we have to analyse the multifaceted relationships that may hold between states and prospective immigrants, distinguishing on the one hand between those who are either inside or outside the state’s territory, and on the other between refugees, economic migrants and ‘particularity claimant…Read more
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190Justice and boundariesPolitics, Philosophy and Economics 8 (3): 291-309. 2009.Michael Walzer has argued that `distributive justice presupposes a bounded world', but what counts as a relevant boundary? The article criticizes two arguments holding that boundaries should not count at all: a negative argument that there is no relevant difference between human relationships within and across state borders and a positive argument that principles of justice must, as a matter of logic, be universal in scope. It then examines three rival accounts of the bounded scope of distributi…Read more
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29Irregular Migrants: An Alternative PerspectiveEthics and International Affairs 22 (2). 2008.While accepting Carens's view that irregular migrants can rightfully claim from the state protection of human rights, Miller disagrees that such migrants can claim rights of citizenship.
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63‘A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down’: Gillian Brock on global justiceJournal of Global Ethics 5 (3). 2009.A review essay of Gillian Brock Global Justice: A Cosmopolitan Account (Oxford University Press, 2009)
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92Against Global EgalitarianismThe Journal of Ethics 9 (1-2): 55-79. 2005.This article attacks the view that global justice should be understood in terms of a global principle of equality. The principle mainly discussed is global equality of opportunity – the idea that people of similar talent and motivation should have equivalent opportunity sets no matter to which society they belong. I argue first that in a culturally plural world we have no neutral way of measuring opportunity sets. I then suggest that the most commonly offered defences of global egalitarianism – …Read more
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450National Responsibility and Global JusticeOxford University Press. 2007.This chapter outlines the main ideas of my book National responsibility and global justice. It begins with two widely held but conflicting intuitions about what global justice might mean on the one hand, and what it means to be a member of a national community on the other. The first intuition tells us that global inequalities of the magnitude that currently exist are radically unjust, while the second intuition tells us that inequalities are both unavoidable and fair once national responsibilit…Read more
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47A responseCritical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 11 (4): 553-567. 2008.(2008). A response. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy: Vol. 11, Nationalism and Global Justice – David Miller and His Critics, pp. 553-567. doi: 10.1080/13698230802415961
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Goldsmiths College, University of LondonCentre for Philosophy and Critical ThoughtGraduate student