| dc.description.abstract | Ryan Pevnick provides an argument to support the intuition that the state is justified in controlling its borders. He bases this on an ownership claim that citizens acquire through their contributions, hence his position is called the associative ownership view. In this paper, I explain what this position entails, and raise three objections against it. The first is a historical objection, the second an inconsistency claim, and the third argues that there are significant problems with his conception of ownership. Through these three objections, I show that Pevnick takes some unjustified presumptions to support his associative ownership view, thus making it an implausible position. Since Pevnick’s justification for controlled borders fails, it does not form a significant obstruction to a theory in favor of open borders. | |
