{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.02661771454795778, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0009178522257916476, 'mean_word_length': 5.089385474860335, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Book Review: David J Lorenzo, Cities at the End of the World: Using Utopian and Dystopian Stories to Reflect Critically on our Political Beliefs, Communities and Ways of Life

The first part of the book, largely historical, explains how – analogous to the plight of refugees during the interwar years – today’s refugees are internationally pushed ‘beyond the pale of the law’ (p. 16). This Arendtian term, which is central to the book, indicates the exclusion of refugees from legal recognition, which leads to denying their humanity. Parts II and III argue that the exclusion of refugees as subjects of justice is philosophically justified by the discrepancy between two spheres of morality: the first universalist, governed by natural law, and the second limited to civil law. Yet only the latter ensures political equality and equal standing before the law of some – generally citizens – within a polity. The notion of sovereignty – on which states act and which permits the anomalous legal status of refugees – is inherited from the interplay between the historical and moral foundations of ancient philosophy, as well as the Kantian and Lockean traditions, among others. Revision of these accounts leads the author to recommend that states should enter into a multilateral resettlement treaty; an inclusive Global Citizenship Convention. Grounded on the moral equality of all, this would trigger legal equality when newcomers come into contact with the law of the host country. This would safeguard the quite trivial number of refugees who make it to the borders of Western states. However, if ‘coming into contact’ is understood ‘minimally’, that is, as being anyone who applies for a visa to any country, then it would enable everyone, potentially, to move anywhere, and this would generate other forms of injustice, in which case, some overburdened states would then resist multilateral cooperation. A less obscure principled proxy of equality, convincingly argued, should ground obligations towards outsiders that states should accept. This is a well-written book that would be useful for scholars of philosophy, social sciences, human rights, law and migration studies.