Conceptions of Public Reason in the Supranational Sphere and Legitimacy beyond Borders

This chapter contends that legitimacy beyond the state should be understood, given the democratic deficit of supranational authorities, as a subject-conferred attribute of specific norms that generates no more than a duty to respect those norms. It recommends a public reason conception of legitimacy. This conception is not John Rawls’s view of public reason in the supranational sphere, but is Supranational Public Reason sensu stricto , which is found in the legitimating strategies of supranational bodies such as the European Court of Human Rights. Overall, the chapter criticizes Rawls’s account of public reason as a conception of legitimacy in the supranational sphere