Debts, Poverty and Justice

Abstract

In this article, I make the idea that poverty outcomes are not necessarily morally relevant for assessing policies as clear as possible by discussing a specific case within the global justice debate: sovereign debts. The outcome view that I attack has mainly been represented by Pogge, who has argued that the international lending system is unjust because, under it, there is massive and avoidable poverty. The competing view that I propose is deontological: the lending system is not unjust because of its consequences on poverty, but because it allows and promotes (morally) non-binding debts.