Between moral philosophy and the law

moral, political and legal constructivism embedded in The Right to Justification: elements of a constructivist theory of justice

Abstract

The present paper focus on the book The Right to Justification: elements of a constructivist theory of justice, by Rainer Forst. Given that a theory of justice sheds a pertinent light on law, this article aims to present how the basic human right to justification presents itself in moral, political and legal contexts, in order to explain how such contexts of justification are interconnected in the aforementioned work. This objective is justified if we understand that a theory of justice is a necessary normative feature of a legal theory aimed at justified and legitimate disputes resolution. To achieve this goal, to visualize a theory of legal legitimacy in Forst, this work specifically aims: i) to present the general characteristics of The Right to Justification philosophical enterprise; ii) to characterize its moral constructivism, with special focus on how the latter is connected to a conception of human rights and iii) to make explicit  how this moral constructivism is intertwined with political and legal constructivism. From this, the following thesis is sustained: for Forst, law is the language of moral and political discourses, as well as a state order constituted and legitimized through the institutionalization of the individual moral rights. At the end, it is expected to show the relevance of developing a legal theory sensitive to questions of justice, and of developing a theory of justice sensitive to Law as an order by which it can be realized.