What obligations do the world's wealthy people have to ensure that the world's poor achieve a quality of life that is recognizably human? This is the fundamental question of international distributive justice, and surprisingly a question that has been the subject of serious debate only in the past three decades. Charles Jones outlines and evaluates the main competing moral perspectives framing these debates, assessing the relative merits of the utilitarian, human rights, and neo-Kantian perspectives before answering the nationalist, patriotic, relativist, and constitutivist challenges to moral universalism. Jones defends a form of cosmopolitanism involving a commitment to basic human rights, and provides both a guide to the state of the art in disputes about global justice, and a distinctive defense of the moral case for change in the international system.

Charles Jones is associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Western Ontario.

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'exciting new arguments concerning the structure of rights based theories and the problems.' Peter Sutch, Political Studies, Vol.48, No.4, Sept.00.

'a well-argued and effective defence of a plausible, though demanding, position about our duties of justice in global society.' Canadian Journal of Political Science

'a debate over the issue of global justice is now finally taking place ... Charles Jones provides the best overview of the Anglo-American version of this debate currently available ... a very fine book ... an excellent book, and onw that Oxford ought to get into paperback as quickly as possible because there is strong student demand for an overview of this kind.' Chris Brown, Journal Interantional Studies, Vol 28, no 3, 99.

'an important contribution to the literature.' Peter Sutch, Political Studies, Vol.48, No.4, Sept.00.

'a scholarly and insightful argument.' Peter Sutch, Political Studies, Vol.48, No.4, Sept.00.