Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Reconstruction of the System of Rights

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Emancipation, Democracy and the Modern Critique of Law

Part of the book series: International Political Theory ((IPoT))

  • 360 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter addresses Habermas’ reconstruction of private and public autonomy. Habermas points to an important problem in how modern legal paradigms, both liberal and welfare state law, rely on private autonomy. This shows the importance of reconstructing the internal relation between private and public autonomy, bringing out the political autonomy of citizens. Habermas suggests that his elaboration of the system of rights shows the co-originality of private and public autonomy. While this project is important, it is also doubtful that modern law is adequate for showing this co-originality. The reason is that modern law largely relies on private autonomy, reflected in the modern concept of rights.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 59.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 59.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Agamben, Giorgio. 1996 [2000]. Means Without End. Notes on Politics, trans. Vincenzo Binetti and Cesare Casarino. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arendt, Hannah. 1958. The Human Condition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arendt, Hannah. 1963 [1990]. On Revolution. London: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arendt, Hannah. 1969. On Violence. New York: Harcourt Brace.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arato, Andrew. 1998. Procedural Law and Civil Society. In Habermas on Law and Democracy: Critical Exchanges, ed. Michel Rosenfeld and Andrew Arato, 26–36. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bachrach, Peter, and Aryeh Botwinick. 1992. Power and Empowerment. A Radical Theory of Participatory Democracy. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baxter, Hugh. 2011. Habermas: The Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Benjamin, Walter. 1921 [1965]. Zur Kritik der Gewalt. In Zur Kritik der Gewalt und andere Aufsätze, ed. Herbert Marcuse, 29–65. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernstein, Richard. 1998. The Retrieval of the Democratic Ethos. In Habermas on Law and Democracy: Critical Exchanges, ed. Michel Rosenfeld and Andrew Arato, 287–305. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bohman, James. 2000. Public Deliberation: Pluralism, Complexity, and Democracy. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, Wendy. 2015. Undoing the Demos. Neoliberalism’s Stealth Revolution. New York: Zone Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cordero, Rodrigo. 2014. Crisis and Critique in Jürgen Habermas’s Social Theory. European Journal of Social Theory 17 (4): 497–515.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crouch, Colin. 2004. Post-Democracy. Cambridge: Polity .

    Google Scholar 

  • Dahl, Robert. 1989. Democracy and its Critics. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dahl, Robert. 2007. On Political Equality. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deflem, Mathieu. 1994. Introduction: Law in Habermas’s Theory of Communicative Action. Philosophy & Social Criticism 20 (4): 1–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deflem, Mathieu. 2008. Sociology of Law. Visions of a Scholarly Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Demirovic, Alex. 1997. Zivilgesellschaft, Öffentlichkeit, Demokratie. Demokratie und Herrschaft. Aspekter kritischer Gesellschaftstheorie. Demirovic, 148–164. Münster: Westfälisches Dampfboot.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dews, Peter. 2002. Law, Solidarity, and the Tasks of Philosophy. In Discourse and Democracy. Essays on Habermas’s Between Facts and Norms, ed. René von Schomberg and Kenneth Baynes, 165–184. Albany: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fraser, Nancy. 1990. Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy. Social Text 25 (26): 56–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fung, Archon, and Erik Olin Wright (eds.). 2003. Deepening Democracy. Institutional Innovations in Empowered Participatory Governance. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giddens, Anthony. 1985. The Nation-State and Violence. A Contemporary Critique of Historical Materialism, vol. 2. Cambridge: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giugni, Marco, Doug McAdam, and Charles Tilly (eds.). 1999. How Social Movements Matter. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Günther, Klaus. 1994. Diskurstheorie des Rechts oder Naturrecht in diskurstheoretischen Gewande. Kritische Justiz 27 (4): 470–487.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Günther, Klaus. 1998. Communicative Freedom, Communicative Power, and Jurisgenesis. In Habermas on Law and Democracy: Critical Exchanges, ed. Michel Rosenfeld and Andrew Arato, 234–254. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Habermas, Jürgen. 1962 [1990]. Strukturwandel der Öffentlichkeit. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Habermas, Jürgen. 1973. Legitimationsprobleme im Spätkapitalismus. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Habermas‚ Jürgen. 1983. Diskursethik – Notizen zu einem Begründungsprogramm. In Moralbewusstsein und kommunikatives Handeln‚ ed. Jürgen Habermas‚ 53–125. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Habermas, Jürgen. 1985. Der philosophische Diskurs der Moderne. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Habermas, Jürgen. 1991. Erläuterungen zur Diskursethik. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Habermas, Jürgen. 1992 [1996]. Faktizität und Geltung. Beiträge zur Diskurstheorie des Rechts und des demokratischen Rechtsstaats. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp. Translated by William Rehg as Between Facts and Norms. Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Habermas, Jürgen. 1996. Inklusion – Einbeziehen order Einschliessen? Zum Verhältnis von Nation, Rechtsstaat und Demokratie. In Die Einbeziehung des Anderen. Studien zur politischen Theorie, ed. Habermas, 154–184. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Habermas, Jürgen. 2003 [2005]. Kulturelle Gleichbehandlung – und die Grenzen des Postmodernen Liberalismus. In Zwischen Naturalismus und Religion. Philosophische Aufsätze, ed. Jürgen Habermas, 279–323. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp. Translated as ‘Equal Treatment of Cultures and the Limits of Postmodern Liberalism’. The Journal of Political Philosophy 13 (1): 1–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Habermas, Jürgen. 2011. Zur Verfassung Europas. Ein Essay. Berlin: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Honneth, Axel. 2011 [2014]. Das Recht der Freiheit. Grundriss einer demokratischen Sittlichkeit. Berlin: Suhrkamp. Translated by Joseph Ganahl as Freedom’s Right. The Social Foundations of Democratic Life. Cambridge: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kupka, Thomas. 1994. Jürgen Habermas diskurstheoretische Reformuliering des klassichen Vernunftrechts. Kritische Justiz 27 (4): 461–469.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Larmore, Charles. 1993. Die Wurzeln radikaler Demokratie. Deutsche Zeitschift für Philosphie 41 (2): 321–328.

    Google Scholar 

  • Loughlin, Martin. 2010. Foundations of Public Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Luhmann, Niklas. 1981. Subjektive Rechte: Zum Umbau des Rechtsbewusstseins für die modern Gesellschaft. In Gesellschaftsstruktur und Semantik. Studien zur Wissenssoziologie der modernen Gesellschaft. Band 2, ed. Niklas Luhmann, 45–104. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Manin, Bernhard. 1997. The Principles of Representative Government. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Maus, Ingeborg. 1996. Liberties and Popular Sovereignty: On Jürgen Habermas’s Reconstruction of the System of Rights. Cardozo Law Review 17 (4–5): 825–882.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maus, Ingeborg. 2011. Über Volkssouveränität. Berlin: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marx, Karl. 1843 [1977]. Zur Judenfrage. In Marx-Engels Werke, vol. 1, 347–377. Berlin: Dietz Verlag. Translation by Gregor Benton as On the Jewish Question. In Karl Marx, Early Writings, 211–242. London: Penguin 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  • Menke, Christoph. 2010. Law and Violence. Law and Literature 22 (1): 1–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Menke, Christoph. 2015. Kritik der Rechte. Berlin: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Näsström, Sofia. 2007. The Legitimacy of the People. Political Theory 35 (5): 624–658.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Näsström, Sofia, and Sara Kalm. 2014. A democratic critique of precarity. Global Discourse: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Current Affairs and Applied Contemporary Thought 5 (4): 556–573.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Offe, Claus. 1989. Fessel und Bremse. In Zwischenbetrachtungen im Prozess the Aufklärung, ed. Axel Honneth et al., 739–774. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Olson, Kevin. 1998. ‘Democratic Inequalities: The Problem of Equal Citizenship in Habermas’ Democratic Theory. Constellations 5 (2): 215–233.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peters, Bernhard. 1993. Die Integration moderner Gesellschaften. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Preuss, Ulrich. 1998. Communicative Power and the Concept of Law. In Habermas on Law and Democracy: Critical Exchanges, ed. Michel Rosenfeld and Andrew Arato, 323–335. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rawls, Jon. 1993. Political Liberalism. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rehg, William, and James Bohman. 2002. Discourse and Democracy: The Formal and the Informal Bases of Legitimacy in Between Facts and Norms. In Discourse and Democracy. Essays on Habermas’s Between Facts and Norms, ed. René von Schomberg and Kenneth Baynes, 31–60. Albany: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scheuerman, William. 1999. Between Radicalism and Resignation: Democratic Theory in Habermas’s Between Facts and Norms. In Habermas: A Critical Reader, ed. Peter Dews, 153–177. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scheuerman, William. 2013. Capitalism, Law, and Social Criticism. Constellations 20 (4): 571–686.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Staats, Joseph. 2004. Habermas and Democratic Theory: The Threat to Democracy of Unchecked Corporate Power. Political Research Quarterly 57 (4): 585–594.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Streeck, Wolfgang. 2012. Citizens as Customers. Considerations on the New Politics of Consumption. New Left Review 76: 27–47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tarrow, Sidney. 1998. Power in Movement: Social Movements and Contentious Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Tilly, Charles (ed.). 1975. The Formation of National States in Western Europe. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tilly, Charles. 1992. Coercion, Capital, and European States, AD 990–1992. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tilly, Charles. 2013. Social Movements 1768–2004. Boulder: Paradigm Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Touri, Kaarlo. 1989. Discourse Ethics and the Legitimacy of Law. Ratio Juris 2 (2): 125–143.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Global Political Studies, Malmö University, Malmö, Sweden

    Mikael Spång

Authors
  1. Mikael Spång
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mikael Spång .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Spång, M. (2018). The Reconstruction of the System of Rights. In: Emancipation, Democracy and the Modern Critique of Law. International Political Theory. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62890-5_4

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation