ABSTRACT
Within moral and political philosophy, the idea of international distributive justice seems to have found most favour amongst cosmopolitans, that is, amongst those who regard individual human beings as, ultimately, the proper objects of moral concern. This chapter distinguishes two ways of conceiving groups as moral claimants: the 'corporate' and the 'collective'. These two conceptions locate in different places the moral standing that makes it possible for a group to be the bearer of just claims. Because it conceives groups as unified entities capable of bearing rights as unified entities, the corporate conception might be said to regard groups as 'individuals'. In contrast with the corporate conception, the collective conception locates moral standing in the individuals who make up the group rather than in the group as an independent moral entity. A reason for rejecting the very idea of international distributive justice turns on the relation between a political community and the resources that fall within its territory.
