Acción comunicativa, derecho y organización social. El concepto de derecho en Habermas

Abstract

This summary presents the concept of law proposed by Habermas in Facticidad y Validez. This conception assumes law to be an application that makes the democratic administration of a society possible, based on institutionalized procedures which guarantee citizens participation in and deliberation on a problem to be solved or decision to be taken, in other words, the public use of reason as part of the democratic lifestyle. Following the arguments put forward by Habermas, the idea of law is reconstructed as an organized application that maintains its relationship with "the theory of communicative action", in which "communicative reason" is formed in its core; it is thus "a linguistic medium" in which actions are linked, and life styles are structured based on free trade. This rationale implies procedures, rules and agreements which represent intersubjective understanding and is formed by a set of conditions of possibility at the same time as being restrictive, as well as certain practical conditions relating to speech, which permit communication oriented towards understanding among its participants.