Jürgen Habermas is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Frankfurt.
Review
"[A] fascinating synthesis of Continental and Anglo-American legal theory. . . full of interesting insights,
acute criticisms, and striking passages."
-- Richard A. Posner, The New Republic
The MIT Press Web Site, April, 2000
Summary
In Between Facts and Norms Jürgen Habermas works out the legal and political implications of his Theory
of Communicative Action (1981), bringing to fruition the project announced with his publication of The Structural
Transformation of the Public Sphere in 1962.
This new work is a major contribution to recent debates on the rule of law and the possibilities of democracy in
postindustrial societies. It offers a sweeping, sociologically informed conceptualization of law and basic rights,
a normative account of the rule of law and the constitutional state, an attempt to bridge normative and empirical
approaches to democracy, and an account of the social context required for democracy. The work concludes with a
bold proposal for a new paradigm of law that goes beyond the dichotomies that have afflicted modern political theory
from its inception and that still underlie current controversies between so-called liberals and civic republicans.
