Key words:
Public International Law, moral cosmopolitanism, universalism of human rights, global justice, global democracy, reform of the United Nations, Peoples´ Assembly, Global Resources Dividend, currency transaction tax/Tobin Tax.
Abstract:
The article presents an inspiring stream of international scholarship – the cosmopolitan approach to Public International Law. Being critical of the present international order, cosmopolitan thinkers offer progressive ideas, propose the reform of international organisations and model innovative frameworks to deal with the global problems of the 21st century. The first part of the article deals with the philosophical foundations of cosmopolitanism that include Kantian morality, human rights universalism and the principles of John Rawls´ justice as fairness. Cosmopolitans recognise that global injustices often stem from the established rules and actual power-dynamics of the global political and economic system, and propose systemic changes such as democratisation of the UN through introduction of the Peoples´ Assembly in which the people - i.e. the populations of the UN member states would be represented. In attempt to balance over-consumption of the earth’s resources by some fifth part of the world population with the persisting deprivation of millions of fellow-humans from enjoying even the basic necessities for life, global redistributive schemes are being proposed. Two of them, as the most feasible ones, the Global Resources Dividend and the currency transaction tax known as the Tobin Tax, are then presented in more detail.