Sanjay Reddy:

The Role of Constraints in Normative Reasoning: A Theory, with Application to International Distributive Justice

Accustomed forms of normative reasoning are constraint-abiding. They emphasize the existence of practical constraints, and the need to operate within them. Inevitably, the specific assumptions that are made about the constraints that exist play a central role in determining what normative conclusions arise. An alternative form of normative reasoning is constraint-reforming. It emphasizes that normative reasoning must examine whether and in what ways existing constraints can be revised. A fact motivating such reasoning is that actions can be constraint-reforming as well as constraint-abiding; that is to say, they can influence what constraints exist as well as what outcomes arise in the presence of existing constraints. This paper attempts to present a coherent portrait of the circumstances and possibilities of constraint-reforming normative reasoning, and to offer an example of how such reasoning may be applied in a specific domain: that of international distributive justice.