Dialogue and Universalism

Volume 26, Issue 1, 2016

Human Identity

Transnational Justice and the Global Taxation Policy Proposal
An Institutionalist Address of the Feasibility Question

This work attempts to address some basic feasibility concerns in the global taxation policy proposal. In recent years, moral-political philosophizing has extensively advanced the idea of transnational justice through volumes of scholarly literature. In moving the discussions beyond an ideational level and projecting it onto a practical realm, moral-political thinkers have proposed a global taxation policy, the proceeds of the implementation of which are meant to cater for the global poor. This proposal is morally laudable, given that it would substantially benefit the global needy. Nonetheless, the proposal raises some basic feasibility concerns, such as the moral and legal justifiability of the proposal; the nature of the object to be globally taxed and how it is to be globally taxed; the nature of the globalist institution to implement the proposal; the legitimacy challenge of the globalist institution, and the challenge of practical implementation of the proposal by the institution. If the proposal is to succeed, the critical issues ought to be constructively addressed. Given that institutionalism necessarily emerges in the feasibility concerns, an institutionalist approach is advanced in this work to constructively address them.