INTRODUCTION

Theories of global justice address two main issues. First, what would a just distribution of benefits and burdens across the world look like? Second, what sorts of institutions would be required to secure such a just distribution? Many other related questions inevitably arise when these problems are addressed. Perhaps the most notable is how to establish such institutions given the diversity of sovereign nations and the fact of global inequalities of wealth and power. For many, these questions are urgent because we live in a world in which millions live in desperate poverty. They are salient not only because many people enjoy great wealth but also because the disparity in riches may itself be the product of unjust global institutions. On this view, it might be said, justice is the first virtue of global institutions. Institutions, no matter how efficient and well-arranged, must be reformed or abolished if they are unjust.

For some theories, however, the issue of global justice has a wider scope. The protection of human rights generally, it is argued, is a matter of justice. Just institutions would ensure not only that the distribution of benefits and burdens was morally justifiable but also that people were secure against the predations of despots and warlords. The security of people's individual liberties and political rights is also a matter of justice. To establish global justice requires institutions that secure human rights broadly understood.