Reconsidering European Contributions to Global Justice

2026-07-22

GLOBUS critically assesses the EU’s impact on justice in a global system characterised by uncertainty, risk and ambiguity. GLOBUS defines a new research agenda for the study of the EU’s global role. This agenda directs attention to underlying political and structural challenges to global justice that are prior to the distributive problem, as well as to the fact that what is just is contested both by theorists and policy makers. GLOBUS provides in depth knowledge of how the EU proceeds to promote justice within the specific fields of climate change, trade, development, asylum/migration and security while also speaking to the key horizontal issues of gender and human rights within each of these fields. Rather than focusing on a single dimension GLOBUS develops three different conceptions of justice. This nuanced conceptual scheme allows GLOBUS to address the multifaceted challenge of justice, and to specify the EU’s real impact. GLOBUS takes heed of the reality of “the foreign will” through intense engagement with partners outside Europe. This provides a ‘reality check’ of the limits and potential for the EU’s future place in a multi-polar order. The three conceptions of justice as non-dominance, as impartiality and as mutual recognition all have limitations as they prioritise some challenges to global justice over others. These limitations are important in order to empirically discern inhibiting factors for global political justice– such as power, unequal competences and the prevailing ‘system of states’ – as well as in order to specify how the EU contributes to justice. In order to develop a feasible model of justice promotion, we return to theory when data is collected and revise and amend the analytical model. We further factor in the viewpoints and experience of practitioners and stakeholders, GLOBUS provides policy-relevant recommendations that take into consideration ideal requirements while at the same time not losing sight of the realities of power.

Norway, Germany, Ireland, Italy, South Africa, Brazil, India, China

2026-01-15