Abstract
The appalling state in which a significant proportion of the world’s population lives has reinvigorated interest in trusteeship as a way of responding to problems of international disorder and injustice. Trusteeship presupposes a relationship in which a natural person or a legal person is responsible for the well-being of persons who are incapable of acting for themselves. This article explores what is at stake in resurrecting trusteeship in a society of states that is constituted in part by the fundamental juridical equality of its members. An examination of the procedural ethics of trusteeship, prevailing beliefs about independence in international society, and the type of association in which trusteeship might be morally sustainable informs the conclusion that the resurrection of trusteeship necessarily entails the death of the principle of universal equality among states.
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