•  49
    Global Distributive Justice, Entitlement, and Desert
    Canadian Journal of Philosophy, Supplementary Volume 31 (sup1): 109-138. 2005.
    The facts of global poverty are staggering. Consider, for instance, how 1.5 billion people subsist below the international poverty line, which means about a quarter of the world's current population lives in poverty. There is much talk about how freer markets will help the situation of these people, in particular how it will help the worst off. So far the evidence for this claim is fairly unclear. ‘At any rate, on several accounts, alleviating the worst aspects of poverty would impose fairly sma…Read more
  •  301
    The difference principle, equality of opportunity, and cosmopolitan justice
    Journal of Moral Philosophy 2 (3): 333-351. 2005.
    What kinds of principles of justice should a cosmopolitan support? In recent years some have argued that a cosmopolitan should endorse a Global Difference Principle. It has also been suggested that a cosmopolitan should support a Principle of Global Equality of Opportunity. In this paper I examine how compelling these two suggestions are. I argue against a Global Difference Principle, but for an alternative Needs-Based Minimum Floor Principle (where these are not co-extensive, as I explain). Tho…Read more
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    Recent Work on Rawls's Law of Peoples: Critics versus Defenders
    American Philosophical Quarterly 47 (1): 85. 2010.
    There is much current and growing interest in theorizing about global justice. Contemporary events in the world probably account for most of this, but if any philosophical text can be identified as igniting theorists' relatively newly found interest, it must be John Rawls's influential book, The Law of Peoples . There is a lively debate between critics and advocates of Rawls's approach, and much theorizing about global justice is framed in terms of that exchange. Because of its enormous influenc…Read more
  •  88
    Cosmopolitan democracy and justice: Held versus Kymlicka
    Studies in East European Thought 54 (4): 325-347. 2002.
    There has been much interest in cosmopolitan models of democracy in recent times. Arguably, the most developed of these is the model articulated by David Held, so it is not surprising that it has received the most attention and criticism. In this paper, I outline Held's model of cosmopolitan democracy and consider the objections Will Kymlicka raises to this account. I argue that Kymlicka's objections do not undermine Held's central claims and that Held's cosmopolitanism remains a very promising …Read more
  •  14
    Necessary Goods: Our Responsibilities to Meet Others Needs
    Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 1998.
    Do any needs defensibly make claims on anyone? If so, which needs and whose needs can defensibly do this? What are the grounds for our responsibilities to meet others' needs, when we have such responsibilities? The distinguished contributors to this volume consider these questions as they evaluate the moral force of needs. They approach questions of obligation and moral importance from a variety of different theoretical perspectives, including contractarian, Kantian, Aristotelian, rights-based, …Read more