Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines the idea of international justice in relation to different traditions of political and international theory. It charts the emergence of international justice as a topic of international relations theory, an emergence that the author attributes as much political events as to theoretical developments. The book then explores the just war concept of international justice. It also focuses on the tension between particular and universal ties and obligations that activates most discussions. The book focuses on the tension between 'loyalist' particularism and cosmopolitan universalism. It also defends global or cosmopolitan principles of distributive justice against particularists or those who oppose universalist norms in the name of the sovereign state. The book examines the part played by considerations of justice and fairness in the European acid rain talks that commenced in the mid-1970s and that culminated in the 1994 Oslo Protocol.