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Senses of Sen: reflections on Amartya Sen's ideas of justice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 February 2012

César Arjona ,
Arif A. Jamal ,
Carrie Menkel-Meadow ,
Victor V. Ramraj  and
Francisco Satiro
César Arjona
Affiliation:
ESADE Law School, Ramon Llull University
Arif A. Jamal
Affiliation:
Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore
Carrie Menkel-Meadow*
Affiliation:
Law Center, Georgetown University and University of California, Irvine Law School
Victor V. Ramraj
Affiliation:
Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore
Francisco Satiro
Affiliation:
Department of Business Law, Sao Paulo University
*
[email protected]
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Extract

The Idea of Justice is one of those books that – whether we agree with its ultimate conclusions or not – will be virtually impossible to ignore. And for good reason: it takes on one of the great political philosophers of our time, John Rawls, and deepens, enriches and challenges some basic Rawlsian ideas. Sen's basic argument is that the Rawlsian approach to justice, which has profoundly influenced the development of contemporary political theory since the publication of A Theory of Justice in 1971, is so focused on ideal, transcendentally just institutions that it is unable to offer practical guidance for advancing justice in an increasingly borderless world. Sen's ambitious critique of Rawls takes him on a winding but engaging path, through political and moral philosophy, economics, history and law. Along the way, he challenges mainstream economic theories of rationality, explores deontological and consequentialist ethics through the lens of classical Indian thought, articulates and defends an understanding of freedom in terms of capability, and rethinks the relationship between development, agency and democracy in a global context.

Type
Review essay
Information
International Journal of Law in Context , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , March 2012 , pp. 155 - 178
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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