RT Article
T1 “Honor Among (the Beneficiaries of) Thieves”
JF Ethical theory and moral practice
VO 18
IS 2
SP 385
OP 402
A1 Meketa, Irina
LA English
YR 2015
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1565677560
AB Traditional accounts of the fair play principle suggest that, under appropriate conditions, those who benefit from the cooperative labor of others acquire an obligation of repayment. However, these accounts have had little to say about the nature of such obligations within morally or legally problematic cooperative schemes, taking the matter to be either straightforward or unimportant. It is neither. The question of what sorts of fair play obligations obtain for those who benefit from illicit cooperative activity is a matter of great complexity and consequence with implications for, inter alia, global economic justice. In this essay, I explore the nature of this obligation within illicit cooperative schemes, specifically those with so-called negative externalities, or deleterious effects on non-members of the scheme. I conclude that the willing beneficiaries of such schemes acquire a fair-play obligation to recognize and respond to their culpability. This reconceptualization of the fair play principle opens up new avenues for exploring the obligations of those who benefit from acts of collective wrongdoing.
K1 Cooperative scheme
K1 Externalities
K1 Fair play
K1 Free-riding
K1 Obligation
DO 10.1007/s10677-014-9524-x