Abstract
As all of us know, recent theories of justice have been developing the rich discussions about the relationship between the idea of person and the public framework of distribution. The starting point for this development was set by John Rawls' seminal work, "A Theory of Justice" (1971), which formulated the basic framework of liberal justice in giving the invaluable conditions for individuals as the moral person to pursue divergent goods. Seen from this angle, not only liberal standpoints Rawls represented but also, for example, a libertarian standpoint are active in claiming that we need simple negative justice while requiring strong individualism that encourages self-help and independence. Further, communitarianism has been emphasizing the importance of common good that people share in heeding to the social bond among them. Also active are the movements for social justice that concerns the discriminated and excluded people due to racial and sexual identities.
We may find the three theoretical issues in this trend. One is what are the factors that are constitutive of human agency: is it agency that excludes particular differences, or identities that enroll particular differences? The other is what the value of justice tries to protect: is it what governs the distribution of goods, or remedies the wider relations of powers in society? And the last is how these two issues are combined and solved institutionally: are these dealt systemically by a monistic hierarchy of laws whose summit is constitutional law or addressed in a more multiple legal space from various angles?
The solution to these issues depends on what kind of conceptions we construct as to how we determine and make connections between the conception of agency, justice, and law. And the entire connection of these conceptions will articulate the perspective how the society in question is to be maintained as decent. In this paper, I wish to support the liberal standpoint and to explore a more sensible liberalism by rethinking the significance and potential of the idea of liberal equality which underlies the depth of the thought of liberalism. And, in so doing, I reconsider the possibility of responsiveness of that view toward the social circumstances and legal claims of cultural minorities, and think about the connections between the idea of human agency that takes into account the multiplicity of persons, the idea of resource-based equality of distribution that takes into account the contextual sensitivity, and the idea of law.
