The constitutional phylosophy of John Rawls and Jürgen Habermas: A debate about the relations between legal systems and rights systems

Abstract

This paper analyzes the debate between Rawls and Habermas, especially about the relationships that both establish between justice systems and rights systems. It begins presenting a possibility of concept of what it would be called as constitutional philosophy and which were its relationships with the rights theory and the constitutional one. Therefore, it presents John Rawls’s work and the critics that Jürgen Habermas formulates. Finally, it investigates which system would be more appropriate to make true the constitutional democracy in a society marked by pluralism.