John Rawls, "The Law of Peoples," and International Political Theory

Abstract

The writer comments on the following four publications by John Rawls: the 1999 revised edition of A theory of justice; Political liberalism, 1995; Collected papers, 1999; and The law of peoples, 1999. He argues that Rawls is the most influential English-language political philosopher of the second half of the 20th century. However, he asserts that his masterwork, A theory of justice, is flawed and incomplete and that the “Rawls industry” that developed around this masterpiece has been stimulated by these imperfections. He points out that Rawls himself has corrected and elaborated upon his original formulations in Political liberalism and his recent Collected papers. He contends that one of the most controversial features of Theory related to its handling of international issues, a topic addressed in The law of peoples.