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“Constitution (Written or Unwritten)”: Legitimacy and Legality in the Thought of John Rawls
Author(s) -
Michelman Frank I.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
ratio juris
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.344
H-Index - 10
eISSN - 1467-9337
pISSN - 0952-1917
DOI - 10.1111/raju.12222
Subject(s) - legitimacy , constitution , principle of legality , law , interpretation (philosophy) , normative , power (physics) , politics , political science , law and economics , democratic legitimacy , sociology , philosophy , linguistics , physics , quantum mechanics
John Rawls proposed, as what he called “the liberal principle of legitimacy,” that coercive exercises of political power can be justified to free and equal dissenters when “in accordance with a constitution (written or unwritten) the essentials of which all citizens, as reasonable and rational, can endorse.” Does “unwritten constitution” there refer to norms of constitutional import, but that subsist only as custom, not as law? To norms that subsist as common law but not as code law? To empirical regularities of political practice, as opposed to normative rules and standards? Which interpretation is best?