ABSTRACT
Some have argued that one must choose between views of international justice that apply to states and those that apply to individual persons.5 But this is a temptation to be resisted. It is not inconsistent to hold that the well-being of individuals is what finally matters from a moral point of view but that principles of justice impose obligations and entitlements on states and other institutional actors as well. Indeed, it might be that collective entities have the primary duties to satisfy rights possessed by individuals and that individuals have duties only (or mainly) in their capacities as members of societies. There is no conceptual reason to have to choose between a theory whose only units are individuals and one whose only units are states.
