Wiley-Blackwell Rawls's Law of Peoples: A Realistic Utopia?

John Rawlsis considered the most important theorist of justice in much of western Europe and the English-speaking world more generally. This volume examines Rawls’s theory of international justice as worked out in his last and perhaps most controversial book, The Law of Peoples. It contains new and stimulating essays, some sympathetic, others critical, written by pre-eminent theorists in the field. These essays situate Rawls’s The Law of Peoples historically and methodologically, and examine all its key ingredients: its thin cosmopolitanism, its doctrine of human rights, its principles of global economic justice, and its normative theory of liberal foreign policy. The book will set the terms of the debate on The Law of Peoples for years to come, thereby shaping the broader debates about global justice. Review "This is a useful and illuminating volume that will greatly deepen its readers' understanding of Rawls's The Law of Peoples and related problems of justice and human rights on a global scale." (Human Right Review, December 2008) A Choice Magazine's Outstanding Academic Book for 2006 Review "Like his conception of social justice, John Rawls’s vision of a just world has been the subject of heated debate, but its real strengths and weaknesses are becoming apparent only gradually. This excellent volume substantially advances that process, and will benefit anyone hoping to understand how one of the greatest political philosophers addressed some of humanity’s most pressing problems." –Andrew Williams, University of Reading From the Inside Flap John Rawlsis considered the most important theorist of justice in much of western Europe and the English-speaking world more generally. This volume examines Rawls’s theory of international justice as worked out in his last and perhaps most controversial book, The Law of Peoples. It contains new and stimulating essays, some sympathetic, others critical, written by pre-eminent theorists in the field. These essays situate Rawls’s The Law of Peoples historically and methodologically, and examine all its key ingredients: its thin cosmopolitanism, its doctrine of human rights, its principles of global economic justice, and its normative theory of liberal foreign policy. The book will set the terms of the debate on The Law of Peoples for years to come, thereby shaping the broader debates about global justice. From the Back Cover John Rawlsis considered the most important theorist of justice in much of western Europe and the English-speaking world more generally. This volume examines Rawls’s theory of international justice as worked out in his last and perhaps most controversial book, The Law of Peoples. It contains new and stimulating essays, some sympathetic, others critical, written by pre-eminent theorists in the field. These essays situate Rawls’s The Law of Peoples historically and methodologically, and examine all its key ingredients: its thin cosmopolitanism, its doctrine of human rights, its principles of global economic justice, and its normative theory of liberal foreign policy. The book will set the terms of the debate on The Law of Peoples for years to come, thereby shaping the broader debates about global justice. About the Author Rex Martin is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Kansas and Honorary Professor at Cardiff University. His most recent books are A System of Rights (1997) and a revised edition of R.G. Collingwood's An Essay on Metaphysics (2002). David Reidy is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Tennessee. He is the author of many articles and chapters in political philosophy and the philosophy of law and on Rawls in particular. He is the co-editor, with Mortimer Sellers, of Universal Human Rights: Moral Order in a Divided World (2005).