Conclusion

Abstract

The considerations Rawls offers in support of protections for individual freedom and of moral and political equality at the domestic level remain attractive. They seem applicable to persons across our planet just as they do to persons in particular societies already committed to liberal values. A cosmopolitan second original position thus appears to provide a more appropriate means of identifying suitable principles of global justice than its Rawlsian alternative. Persons should be regarded as equal globally from a political and moral standpoint, and principles of global political morality should be assessed in light of the equality and distinctness of persons.