Fairness to non-participants: a Case for Global Distributive Egalitaranism

What is it about?

Egalitarians about distributive justice believe that justice demands that everyone's distributive entitlements are equal in some respect (e.g. equality in the distribution of resources, social primary goods, capabilities etc.). However, most egalitarians believe that such equality is only owed by co-citizens (or participants in shared social practices like international trade) to each other, and not toward outsiders. In this article, I argue that this position is implausible because it implies that we do not have to consider the interests of outsiders when it comes to the appropriation of currently unowned resources or resources that cannot be owned (e.g. unexplored natural resources or the atmosphere's absorptive capacity). This shows that the demands of egalitarian justice extend beyond existing practices and associations such as states and trade relations. As a result, what justice requires distributively is much more demanding than is normally assumed.

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Why is it important?

Explains why we owe much more to those who are not our co-citizens and trading partners than respect for their human rights.