Affiliation:
1. Fakultet kanonskog prava, Papinsko sveučilište Sveti križ, Rim, Italija
Abstract
In the paper, the author analyzes the
concept of law in John Rawls’s political conception of justice. After analyzing
Rawls’s relevant texts that contain certain elements of the argument for the
concept of law as an institution, of the legal system, of legal norms and of
the rights, as well as the secondary literature on these texts, the
metajuridical foundation of the concept of law is researched. The author then
claims that Rawls’s argument for the priority of right over ideas of good is
the central thesis
for an adequate understanding of his legal constructivism. It is then affirmed
that we can legitimately refer to his thought on the subject under the rubric
of the priority of the law over the ideas of the good. Rawls’s conception of
the natural rights is researched next. The paper concludes with the evaluation
of the results of the whole line of analysis, especially with regard to the
place of Rawls’s concept of law within the contemporary juridical-philosophical
debates.
Publisher
University of Rijeka Faculty of Law