Justice Across Boundaries: Whose Obligations?

252 Pages·2016·1.48 MB·English

by  Onora O’Neill

JUSTICE ACROSS BOUNDARIES
Whooughttodowhat,andforwhom,ifglobaljusticeistoprogress?
Inthiscollectionofessaysonjusticebeyondborders,OnoraO’Neill
criticisestheoreticalapproachesthatconcentrateonrightsyetignore
boththeobligationsthatmustbemettorealisethoserights,andthe
capacitiesneededbythosewhoshouldertheseobligations.Shenotes
that states are profoundly anti-cosmopolitan institutions, and even
those committed to justice and universal rights often lack the com-
petenceandthewilltosecurethem,letalonetosecurethembeyond
their borders. She argues for a wider conception of global justice, in
whichobligationsmaybeheldeitherbystatesorbycompetentnon-
stateactors,andinwhichbordersthemselvesmustmeetstandardsof
justice. This rich and wide-ranging collection will appeal to a broad
array of academic researchers and advanced students of political
philosophy, political theory, international relations and philosophy
oflaw.
onora o’neill, baroness o’neill of Bengarve, is a former
PrincipalofNewnhamCollegeCambridge,sitsasacross-benchpeer
in the House of Lords and is Emeritus Honorary Professor of
PhilosophyattheUniversityofCambridge.Shehaspublishedwidely
onKant’sphilosophyandhermostrecentpublicationsincludeActing
onPrinciple, second edition (Cambridge, 2013).

JUSTICE ACROSS
BOUNDARIES: WHOSE
OBLIGATIONS?
ONORA O’NEILL
UniversityPrintingHouse,Cambridgecb28bs,UnitedKingdom
CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge.
ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof
education,learningandresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence.
www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107538177
©OnoraO’Neill2016
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2016
PrintedintheUnitedKingdombyClays,StIvesplc
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloguinginPublicationdata
O’Neill,Onora.
Justiceacrossboundaries:whoseobligations?/OnoraO’Neill.
pages cm
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
isbn978-1-107-11630-6(Hardback)–isbn978-1-107-53817-7(Paperback)
1. Internationalrelations–Moralandethicalaspects. 2. Justice(Philosophy) 3. Distributivejustice.
4. Transitionaljustice. 5. Humanrights. 6. Globalization–Moralandethicalaspects.
7. Globalization–Politicalaspects. I. Title.
jz1306.o642016
341–dc23 2015031125
isbn978-1-107-11630-6Hardback
isbn978-1-107-53817-7Paperback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracy
ofURLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication,
anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain,
accurateorappropriate.
Contents
Acknowledgements page vii
Introduction 1
part i hunger across boundaries 11
1 Lifeboat Earth 13
2 Rights, obligations and world hunger 29
3 Rights to compensation 43
part ii justifications across boundaries 59
4 Justice and boundaries 61
5 Ethical reasoning and ideological pluralism 79
6 Bounded and cosmopolitan justice 99
7 Pluralism, positivism and the justification of human rights 120
part iii action across boundaries 135
8 From Edmund Burke to twenty-first-century human rights:
abstraction, circumstances and globalisation 137
9 From statist to global conceptions of justice 151
10 Global justice: whose obligations? 160
11 Agents of justice 177
12 The dark side of human rights 193
v
vi Contents
part iv health across boundaries 209
13 Public health or clinical ethics: thinking beyond borders 211
14 Broadening bioethics: clinical ethics, public health
and global health 225
Index 239
Acknowledgements
Iamdeeplygratefultomanyfriends,colleaguesandstudents,andtowider
audiences,whohavecommentedonandimprovedmythinkingonjustice
and boundaries across several decades.
vii

Introduction
Do good fences make good neighbours?
In his simple and deep poem Mending Wall Robert Frost imagines a
dialogue with his New England neighbour about mending the crumbling
drystone wall that separates their farms, where cattle no longer run.
He points out that the wall is now not needed:
There where it iswe do not need the wall:
He isall pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees willneverget across
And eat theconesunderhis pines, Itell him.
His taciturn neighbour remains unconvinced:
Heonly says, ‘Goodfencesmake good neighbours.’
Frostthenposesquestionsthatnowanimatemanydiscussionsofjusticein
a globalising world:
Springis themischief in me,and Iwonder
If I could puta notion inhis head:
‘Why do they make good neighbours? Isn’t it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before Ibuilt awall I’d asktoknow
What Iwas walling inor wallingout,
And towhom I was like togiveoffence.
Something there isthatdoesn’t love a wall,
That wants it down.’
Are walls and fences, borders and boundaries, needed for good relations
and for justice? Or do they impose and perpetuate injustice? What
violations are likely if they are no longer maintained? Can the ‘walling
in or walling out’ that borders create and maintain be justified? Is
the ‘mischief’ that tempts Frost to be rejected or embraced? Walls
have been built and mended to exclude and include since time
1