RECON Online Working Paper 2011/12

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Transnational Justice and Democracy

Rainer Forst (Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main)

Abstract 

This paper argues against three traditional dogmas in political theory: the thesis of the (conceptual and practical) incompatibility between democracy and justice; the idea that a “context of justice” only exists within the confines of a state; and the view that political democracy presupposes a demos organised within a state. Only if these dogmas are overcome can a proper conception of transnational justice and democracy be worked out. The key to this is the right “picture” of justice as based on a principle of discursive justification.

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