Between Facts and Norms - Contributions to a ... - Blogs Unpad

118- ------------- -----Chapter 3quired to answer the growing need for regulation and organizationin increasingly complex societies. The real proportions becomeevident only when one turns things around and also views moralityfrom the vantage point of the legal system. A principled moralitywhose effectiveness was based solely on socialization processes andindividual conscience would remain restricted to a narrow radiusof action. Through a legal system with which it remains internallycoupled, however, morality can spread to all spheres of action,including those systemically independent spheres of media-steeredinteractions that unburden actors of all moral expectations otherthan that of a general obedience to law. In less complex societies,socially integrating force inheres in the ethos of a form of life,inasmuch as this integral ethical life binds all the components ofthe lifeworld together, attuning concrete duties to institutions andlinking them with motivations. Under conditions of high complexity,moral contents can spread throughout a society along thechannels of legal regulation.3.3 A Discourse-Theoretic Justification of Basic Rights:The Discourse Principle, the Legal Form, and theDemocratic Principle_We can now tie the various strands of argument together, in order,to introduce a system of rights that gives equal weight to both theJprivate and the public autonomy of the citi ie n. This system should(contain precisely the basic rights that citizens must mutually grantlone another if they want to legitimately regulate their life in\COmmon by means of positive law. As in social-contract theories,these rights should be introduced first of all from the perspectiveof a nonparticipant. We have already taken a number of steps thatprepare for this. We began by recalling the doctrinal history of civillaw from Savigny to Kelsen in order to show that a legitimacy basedon legality is rather puzzling. We then went on to interpret theconcept of civic autonomy in discourse-theoretic terms; this broughtout the internal connection between human rights and popularsovereignty. Finally, we investigated the complementary relationbetween law and morality so as to clarify the formal characteristicsthat distinguish legal norms from general norms of action. Interest-