THE DUTY TO RELIEVE POVERTY

Abstract

Debates on poverty relief have often focused on redistributing resources to the poor. In this thesis, my first aim is to demonstrate that Immanuel Kant?s system of right consistently supports both domestic poverty relief by means of public redistribution, and relief to impoverished foreigners by granting them refuge. Although dealing with poverty is essential in protecting the human right to freedom, the defensibility of a particular means of relief is ultimately context-dependent. There is no single `right? way to relieve poverty. My second aim is to defend the argument that the poor?s right to relief in both domestic and supranational contexts is nevertheless unenforceable. Because a supranational sovereign is theoretically impossible, it cannot be just for states to be externally coerced into redistributing resources to impoverished citizens or accommodating economic refugees. Ultimately, the poor?s right to relief is merely provisional.