ABSTRACT
Hillel Steiner’s chapter is at one level a self-conscious commentary on the difficulty of bringing pristine libertarian theory to bear on our actual world, and in particular on problems of transnational migration. The ‘Lockean’ libertarian theory that he espouses operates with an austere, yet highly controversial, set of initial categories: the individual, rights or entitlements, among them pre-eminently rights to property and contract. Even the category of the state is regarded as derivative, if not questionable: anarchist libertarians regard states as invariably unjustifiable; other liber tarians justify only a minimal state with powers to enforce liberties of the person and rights of property. Given its starting point, libertarian thinking is likely to reject all claims on behalf of nations or nationality, cultural identity or the continuity and integrity of communities. What count are only the rights of individuals, including rights to move, associate, reside and work, and finally rights of citizenship. The central question raised by Hillel Steiner’s chapter is whether we can grasp and discuss these rights in ways that are relevant and helpful in our actual world, if we abstract from the national, cultural and community considerations that libertarian thought self-consciously bypasses.
