Introduction

This chapter provides the thinking of European authors from Vitoria to Kant about political justice, the global community, and international hospitality as one special form of interaction among individuals of divergent societies, political communities and cultures. Political scientists are usually most enthusiastic, detecting a trend in current world politics which gradually moves us beyond the Westphalian system of independent nation-states towards a truly global 'community of fate'. The theory of international hospitality is embedded in the endorsement of a cosmopolitan moral or juridical commonwealth or of a global civil society based on universal principles or norms. International hospitality can be interpreted as a means and vehicle to promote the evolution of this commonwealth. Political developments like European integration and demographic changes have led to debates about immigration rights, multi-ethnicity, and the problems of integration and identity. A theory of political justice has the task to evaluate the normative ideas of international hospitality and a global commonwealth.