Nagel's Problem

In "The Problem of Global Justice," adapted for Philosophy & Public Affairs from Prof. Thomas Nagel's recent Storrs Lecture at Yale Law, Nagel pinpoints a question key both to political philosophy and to international law: What social relations, if any, must exist between individuals for norms of distributive justice to apply to the allocation of benefits and burdens among them? Moreover, do the borders between states hinder such relations?

Nagel argues that political relations, mediated by the state and its laws, must exist between individuals for them to bear duties of distributive justice toward one another, or for the state to have such duties to its citizens. It is within, and only within, the political relations established by the state that principles of distributive justice govern our acts and omissions with respect to one another.