PRIORITY OF THE LAW OVER THE IDEAS OF GOOD

RAWLS’S JURIDICAL CONSTRUCTIVISM REVISITED

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.