The Second Part of the Ideal Theory of John Rawls in The Law of Peoples Transplanted and Revisited

Abstract

John Rawls in the second part of his Ideal Theory as it is developed in the Law of the Peoples, argues that both liberal and non-liberal but decent people can still be considered to be people in good standing in a reasonable society of people and proposes the toleration of non-liberal but decent societies by the liberal ones. Within this framework, the current proposal will focus on the relationship between the ‘West’ and the Russian Federation as it has evolved after the collapse of the Soviet regime through recent developments on human rights protection and the regulation of the use of force or the “law of peace” as Rawls claims. The aim of this endeavor is twofold. First, to provide a critical assessment of liberal theories such as cosmopolitan constitutionalism, which promote a particular liberal understanding of global governance based on common values and universal goals. Second, to examine the potential but also limits of the Rawlsian theory of toleration towards the development of a more pluralistic normative analysis of the global order which will be neither utopian nor apologetic but one that will contribute into the realization of a “realistic utopia” between pure liberal and non-pure liberal states.