Between Facts and Norms Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy

by Habermas, Jurgen; Rehg, William

• ISBN13: 9780262581622
• ISBN10: 0262581620
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-01-23
• Publisher: The MIT Press

Summary

In Between Facts and Norms Jürgen Habermas works out the legal and political implications of his Theory of Communicative Action (1981), bringing to fruition the project announced with his publication of The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere in 1962. This new work is a major contribution to recent debates on the rule of law and the possibilities of democracy in postindustrial societies. It offers a sweeping, sociologically informed conceptualization of law and basic rights, a normative account of the rule of law and the constitutional state, an attempt to bridge normative and empirical approaches to democracy, and an account of the social context required for democracy. The work concludes with a bold proposal for a new paradigm of law that goes beyond the dichotomies that have afflicted modern political theory from its inception and that still underlie current controversies between so-called liberals and civic republicans.

Author Biography

Jürgen Habermas is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Frankfurt and Professor of Philosophy at Northwestern University. He was recently awarded the 2004 Kyoto Prize for Arts and Philosophy by the Inamori Foundation. The Kyoto Prize is an international award to honor those who have contributed significantly to the scientific, cultural, and spiritual betterment of mankind.

William Rehg is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Saint Louis University. He is the translator of Jürgen Habermas's Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy (1996) and the coeditor of Deliberative Democracy: Essays on Reason and Politics and Pluralism (1997) and The Pragmatic Turn: The Transformation of Critical Theory (2001), all published by the MIT Press.

Table of Contents

Translator's Introduction

Preface

Law as a Category of Social Mediation between Facts and Norms

The Sociology of Law versus the Philosophy of Justice

A Reconstructive Approach to Law I: The System of Rights

A Reconstructive Approach to Law II: The Principles of the Constitutional State

The Indeterminacy of Law and the Rationality of Adjudication

Judiciary and Legislature: On the Role and Legitimacy of Constitutional Adjudication

Deliberative Politics: A Procedural Concept of Democracy

Civil Society and the Political Public Sphere

Paradigms of Law

Postscript (1994)

Appendices

Notes

Bibliography

Index

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