ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the topic of global justice. So then what is global justice? While more general theories about justice focus on justice within a particular community, global justice focuses on justice among and across states. This field has exploded in recent years: perhaps no other area in political philosophy receives as much attention. Global justice is about justice across states internationally. Most theorising about justice in the history of philosophy looked only at justice within a state. Global justice explores justice beyond the boundaries of the state. We examine the views of statists and nationalists first. They argue that our group membership can give rise to special duties binding only on group members. We next consider their opponents: the cosmopolitans. They argue that such groups are arbitrary and mask the moral equality of individuals, which should matter most.
