Summary Of John Rawls's 'Law Of Peoples'

Rawls’s emphasis on the distinction between ideal and non-ideal theory, his preoccupation with impartial justification and the strains of commitment, and his consecutive insistence on differentiating comprehensive and political moral doctrines all testify to his deep concern for offering a theory of justice which takes into account the constraints of real-world implementation. This concern is most clearly present in his claim to have constructed a “realistic utopia”.
In his Law of Peoples, Rawls writes that his work is an endeavor to convey a realistic utopia to us here and now. Rawls sees political philosophy as “realistically utopian, that is, as probing the limits of practical political possibility.” He sees the utopia as vital to establish …show more content…
It takes people as they are; which he meant by laws of nature and constitutional and civil laws as they might be; which means the laws would be reasonable and just in a well-ordered society. Like in a political society there can be legitimate and sure principles of government taking the laws as they are and the people as they are so as to ensure that justice is not divided. “By way of the stability of right reason is the stability brought about by citizens acting correctly according to the appropriate principles of their sense of justice, which they have acquired by growing up under and participating in just institutions.” The lives of the people are determined by the society from which they belong to that influences their living. Secondly the condition of the two conditions for a liberal political conception of justice to be realistic utopia is that “its first principles and precepts must be workable and applicable to ongoing political and social arrangements.” This can be interpreted as when principles and precepts that are practically suitable and …show more content…
To justify this Rawls expounded articulately in Political Liberalism, “the principles of these conceptions of justice must also satisfy the criterion of reciprocity.” This criterion of reciprocity requires that, when terms are proposed by one party as the most reasonable terms of fair cooperation. “Those who proposing them must think reasonable for others to accept them, as free and equal citizens, and not as dominated or manipulated or under pressure caused by an inferior political or social position.” Each of these citizens are free and equal persons of a given society and there has to be fair terms of cooperation. The persons are reasonable in a basic aspect that they are ready to propose principles and standards as fair terms of cooperation. Sometimes laws and regulations are imposed that the citizens are given lesser or even no choice to choose what is right and just but only to comply with the imposed laws which may be contrary to their conscience which will result in civil unrest. Therefore when the law is promulgated by the government, it has to be for the best interest not only in itself but also for the people to whom these laws are to be practically executed. The citizens at times think differently but agree on certain things as reasonable. Although people have different views of the same subject, they