Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T07:49:37.430Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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
*
meadow@law.georgetown.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arrow, Kenneth J. (1961) Social Choice and Individual Values, 2nd edn.New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Condorcet, Nicolas de (1998) Esquisse d'un tableau historique des progrès de l'esprit humain. Paris: Flammarion.Google Scholar
Cutler, A. Claire (2003) Private Power and Global Authority: Transnational Merchant Law in the Global Political Economy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dharma, Krishna (ed.) (1999) Mahabharata: The Greatest Spiritual Epic of All Time. Canada: Torchlight Publishing.Google Scholar
Dworkin, Ronald (2004) ‘Hart's Postscript and the Character of Political Philosophy’, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 24: 1–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elster, Jon (1995) ‘Strategic Uses of Argument’, in Arrow, Kenneth, Mnookin, Robert H., Ross, Lee, Tversky, Amos and Wilson, Robert (eds), Barriers to Conflict Resolution. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 236–57.Google Scholar
Fisher, William, Reed, Thomas and Horwitz, Morton (eds) (1993) American Legal Realism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forester, John (2009) Dealing with Differences: Dramas of Mediating Public Disputes. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Freeman, Samuel (2007) Rawls. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, Thomas (1988) From Beirut to Jerusalem: One Man's Middle Eastern Odyssey. London: HarperCollins.Google Scholar
Friedman, Thomas (1999) The Lexus and the Olive Tree. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Fuller, Lon L. (2001) The Principles of Social Order, ed. Winston, Kenneth. Oxford: Hart Publishing.Google Scholar
Gutmann, Amy and Thompson, Dennis (1998) Democracy and Disagreement. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Gutmann, Amy and Thompson, Dennis (2004) Why Deliberative Democracy? Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Habermas, Jürgen (2006) ‘Religion in the Public Sphere’, European Journal of Philosophy 14: 1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Habib, Irfan (ed.) (1997) Akbar and His India. Delhi/New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hampshire, Stuart (2001) Justice is Conflict. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Harding, Sandra (2003) The Racial Economy of Science: Toward a Democratic Future (Race, Gender and Science). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Hart, H. L. A. (1997) The Concept of Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hume, David (1978) A Treatise of Human Nature, ed. Selby-Bigge, L. A. and Nidditch, P. H.. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kelsen, Hans (1945) General Theory of Law and State. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Krisch, Nico (2010) Beyond Constitutionalism: The Pluralist Structure of Postnational Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuhn, Thomas S. (1962) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Manu, (1991) The Laws of Manu, ed. Doniger, Wendy. London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Martin, Rex and Reidy, David A. (eds) (2006) Rawls's Law of Peoples: A Realistic Utopia? Malden, MA: Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mattei, Ugo (1997) ‘Three Patterns of Law: Taxonomy and Change in the World's Legal Systems’, American Journal of Comparative Law 45: 5–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Menkel-Meadow, Carrie (1985) ‘Portia in a Different Voice: Speculations on a Women's Lawyering Process’, Berkeley Women's Law Journal 1: 39–63.Google Scholar
Menkel-Meadow, Carrie (2004–2005) ‘The Lawyer's Role(s) in Deliberative Democracy’, Nevada Law Review 5: 347–66.Google Scholar
Menkel-Meadow, Carrie (2006a) ‘Peace and Justice: Notes on the Evolution and Purposes of Plural Legal Processes’, Georgetown Law Journal 94: 553–80.Google Scholar
Menkel-Meadow, Carrie (2006b) ‘The Ethics of Compromise’, in Schneider, Andrea Kupfer and Honeyman, Christopher (eds), The Negotiator's Field Book: The Desk Reference for the Experienced Negotiator. Washington, DC: American Bar Association, Section of Dispute Resolution, 155–64.Google Scholar
Menkel-Meadow, Carrie (2007) ‘Taking Law and … Really Seriously: Before, During and After the Law’, Vanderbilt Law Review 60: 555–95.Google Scholar
Menkel-Meadow, Carrie (2011a) ‘Why and How to Study Transnational Law’, Irvine Law Review 1: 97–128.Google Scholar
Menkel-Meadow, Carrie (2011b) ‘Scaling Up Deliberative Democracy in Health Care Reform: A Work in Progress’, Law and Contemporary Problems 74: 1–30.Google Scholar
Menski, Werner (2006) Comparative Law in a Global Context: The Legal Systems of Asia and Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Menski, Werner (2007) ‘Beyond Europe’, in Örücü, Esin and Nelken, David (eds), Comparative Law: A Handbook. Oxford/Portland, OR: Hart Publishing, 189–216.Google Scholar
Nagel, Thomas (1997) The Last Word. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, Martha (2001) Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pascal, Blaise (1958) Pascal's Pensees. Available at: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18269 (last accessed 17 April 2011).Google Scholar
Pogge, Thomas W. (2001) ‘Rawls on International Justice’, Philosophical Quarterly 51: 246–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Popper, Karl R. (2002) The Logic of Scientific Discovery. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Pound, Roscoe (1910) ‘Law in Books and Law in Action’, American Law Review 44: 12–36.Google Scholar
Rawls, John (1987) ‘The Idea of an Overlapping Consensus’, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 7: 1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rawls, John (1993) Political Liberalism. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Rawls, John (1997) ‘The Idea of Public Reason Revisited’, University of Chicago Law Review 64: 765–807.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rawls, John (1999a) A Theory of Justice, rev. ed. Cambridge, MA: Belknap/Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rawls, John (1999b) The Law of Peoples. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Sandel, Michael J. (2009) Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Sen, Amartya (1985) Commodities and Capabilities. Amsterdam: North Holland.Google Scholar
Sen, Amartya (1993) Inequality Reexamined. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Sen, Amartya (1999) ‘Autobiography’, in Frängsmyr, Tore (ed.), The Nobel Prizes 1998. Stockholm: Nobel Foundation. Available at: www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/1998/sen-autobio.html (last accessed 1 September 2011).Google Scholar
Sen, Amartya (2005) The Argumentative Indian. London/Delhi: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Sen, Amartya (2006) Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny. London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Sen, Amartya (2009) A Conversation with Amartya Sen (and Richard Sennett). Available at: http://www2.lse.ac.uk/publicEvents/events/2009_09-12/20091120t1700vOT.aspx (last accessed 17 April 2011).Google Scholar
Sen, Amartya (2010) ‘The Economist Manifesto’, New Statesman. Available at: www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2010/04/smith-market-essay-sentiments (last accessed 1 September 2011).Google Scholar
Slaughter, Anne Marie (2005) A New World Order. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Adam (1976) An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of The Wealth of Nations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Smith, Adam (1976) The Theory of Moral Sentiments. London: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Smith, Vincent (1909) Asoka: The Buddhist Emperor of India. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Summers, Robert S. (1982) Instrumentalism and American Legal Theory. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Symposium (2000) Ethics 110.Google Scholar
Twining, William (2009) General Jurisprudence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van de Kerchove, Michel and Ost, François (1987) Jalons pour un théorie critique du droit. Bruxelles: Publications des Facultés Universitaires Saint-Louis.Google Scholar
Voltaire, (1772) La Bégueule. Available at: http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/La_Bégueule (last accessed 17 April 2011).Google Scholar
Weisberg, Robert W. (2006) Creativity: Understanding Innovation in Problem Solving, Science, Invention and the Arts. New Jersey: Wiley.Google Scholar
Weithman, Paul (2002) Religion and the Obligations of Citizenship. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, Richard (2009) ‘Western Europe: Last Holdout in the Worldwide Acceptance of Clinical Legal Education’, German Law Journal 10: 823–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yunnus, Muhammad (2003) Banker to the Poor. London: Aurum Press.Google Scholar