The problem of global distributive justice in Rawls’s The Law of Peoples

The essay “The Problem of Global Distributive Justice in The Law of Peoples by John Rawls” is concerned with the question of distributive claims of justice in the global realm. A conception of international justice developed by John Rawls in his book The Law of Peoples offers a very limited kind of distribution of goods beyond state borders, where the matter of distribution of wealth is restricted to a single state. Rawlsian point of view is frequently objected by proponents of the so-called cosmopolitanism, like Thomas Pogge or Charles Beitz, who argue for globalizing Rawlsian justice as fairness. There are analysed the main five objections that may be given against Rawlsian idea of limiting a scope distributive justice, that are: (1) consistency problem; (2) status of principles of a law of peoples; (3) a method of justification; (4) self-sufficiency of states; (5) tolerance