Justice at a Distance : Extending Freedom Globally

Justice at a Distance is the first philosophical work to recommend liberalization of political structures to address global problems, especially poverty. For the most part, local injustice, and not rich countries' failings, generates poverty and stagnation. The book is aimed at fellow academics and students of political philosophy, social justice, law, and international relations.

The current global-justice literature starts from the premise that world poverty is the result of structural injustice mostly attributable to past and present actions of governments and citizens of rich countries. As a result, that literature recommends vast coercive transfers of wealth from rich to poor societies, alongside stronger national and international governance. Justice at a Distance, in contrast, argues that global injustice is largely home-grown and that these native restrictions to freedom lie at the root of poverty and stagnation. The book is the first philosophical work to emphasize free markets in goods, services, and labor as an ethical imperative that allows people to pursue their projects and as the one institutional arrangement capable of alleviating poverty. Supported by a robust economic literature, Justice at a Distance applies the principle of noninterference to the issues of wealth and poverty, immigration, trade, the status of nation-states, war, and aid.