Andras Miklos

The Basic Structure and the Principles of Justice

Andras Miklos — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 07:43:01 PDT

This paper develops an account of how economic and political institutions can limit the applicability of principles of justice even in a non-relational cosmopolitan conception. It shows that fundamental principles of justice underdetermine fair distributive shares as well as justice-based requirements, and it argues that institutions partially constitute the content of justice by specifying these. The argument identifies three important ways economic and political institutions contribute to determining fair distributive shares, and it also explores how political institutions resolve indeterminacies about justice-based requirements flowing from the facts of strategic interaction and disagreement. In the absence of existing institutions principles of justice might not be capable of assessing distributions or guiding individual action and institutional design. Hence, accepting a specific cosmopolitan conception of justice is insufficient to settle global distributive questions. The paper concludes, however, that existing nation-states do not delimit the potential scope of application of principles of justice since the global institutional setup can be reformed so as to become more sensitive to the demands of global justice.

Democratic Cosmopolitanism

Andras Miklos — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:44:39 PDT

Review of Seyla Benhabib: Another Cosmopolitanism

Nationalist Criticisms of Cosmopolitan Justice

Andras Miklos — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 07:45:35 PDT

This paper critically evaluates some central arguments offered by nationalists against stringent international requirements of justice. The first part considers and rejects Michael Walzer’s argument against international justice relying on a view about the social meanings of goods. The refutation points out, first, that Walzer’s thesis is not true as an empirical matter, and, second, it is not an attractive normative position since it is biased towards certain conceptions of the good. The second part of the paper considers non-relativistic arguments for national partiality. It distinguishes between instrumental and intrinsic arguments and argues that neither form is capable of justifying the nationalist thesis. Instrumental arguments would have to rely on implausible empirical premises to justify national partiality. Intrinsic arguments either would have to invoke a view of the impersonal value of national self-determination that is unacceptable to liberals, or need to come up with a justification showing how the intrinsic goods produced by political communities are capable of overriding claims of outsiders.

Public Health and the Rights of States

Andras Miklos — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 07:38:34 PDT

When exercising their public health powers, states claim various rights against their subjects and aliens. The paper considers whether public health considerations can help justify some of these rights, and explores some constraints on the justificatory force of public health considerations. I outline two arguments about the moral grounds for states’ rights with regard to public health. The principle of fairness emphasizes that those who benefit from public health measures ought to contribute their fair share in upholding them. Alternatively, states’ rights might be justified by a natural duty of justice to uphold and not to obstruct institutions implementing public health policies. I indicate some reasons for preferring the latter justification. I further argue that the assignment of some rights to states via public health based justification is undermined on several counts. Domestic political institutions cannot effectively perform some of their functions in protecting public health. Furthermore, trans-border public health threats pose collective action problems at the global level. Finally, concerns about human rights work against the assignment of some rights to states. I conclude by arguing that these concerns call for global coordination, and that some rights claimed by states ought instead to be assigned to global institutions.