The research project is situated at the crossroads of moral philosophy (in particular globalethics) and political philosophy (in particular theories of global justice). It focuses both onindividual moral responsibility and on the principles and institutional conditions for the effectiverealization of a just society. More specifically, we will investigate ‘cosmopolitan’ approaches toglobal justice. According to ‘cosmopolitanists’, the scope of justice is global, thus principles ofdistributive justice should operate globally rather than merely at the level of the state. We willinvestigate the differences between important variants of cosmopolitanism.We will also examine competing approaches to global justice, namely nationalism and the ‘Societyof States’-approach. Our main focus will however be on the realist objection that cosmopolitanjustice is utopian and will remain unfeasible in view of the nature of human beings and of theinternational system which is said to force states to advance their national interest. We willinvestigate the interconnectedness between the responsibility of the individual, the role played bystates and the changes in the global institutional order needed to maximize global justice. Moreover,we will examine whether the fundamental problems regarding individual responsibility can beovercome by a theory of institutional cosmopolitanism. In this context we will also conduct a casestudy about the Health Impact Fund.