“SOMETHING WORTH DEFENDING”: RAWLS AND THE RIGHT TO SELF-DEFENSE IN THE LAW OF PEOPLES

Peri Roberts’s article examines John Rawls's justification for the right to self-defense (RSD) in The Law of Peoples. He argues that Rawls provides a compelling response to David Rodin’s skepticism by treating the RSD as a conditional right assigned only to well-ordered societies. For Rawls, these states are "something worth defending" because they represent the actual possibility of a peaceful international order and sustain "reasonable hope" against the great evils of history. THIS ABSTRACT IS GENERATED WITH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.