Between Facts & Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law & Democracy

— Richard A. Posner, "The New Republic" In "Between Facts and Norms" Ju rgen 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.