Conclusion

Law, order and freedom

Cees Maris

Frans Jacobs

pp. 353-378

in: Cees Maris, Frans Jacobs (eds), Law, order and freedom, Berlin, Springer, 2012

Abstract

Chapter 10 summarises the historical developments of the preceding chapters in light of the central problems of legal philosophy as elaborated on in Chapter 1. It proceeds to discuss whether political liberalism, which has found its most impressive articulation in the theory of justice of John Rawls, provides an adequate answer to these problems. Political liberalism limits itself to articulating the conditions for the peaceful and fair co-operation of persons with conflicting worldviews. It is exclusively a practical theory of the political domain, not a metaphysical doctrine of the nature of man. The chapter concludes that, although there certainly is no such thing as a liberal End of History, for the time being political liberalism emerges from historical experience as providing law with the most reasonable balance of legal order and freedom available.

Cited authors

Rawls John