Justice and the Problem of Obedience to an Unjust Law

The text intends to explain to what extent Rawls' political of justice conception meets the requirements of public justification. The idea is to show that this is only possible due to the reformulations of A Theory of Justice made by the author. To achieve this objective, the article analyzes the conception of justice within the proposed reformulations and indicates how they meet public justification. Three subjects, directly linked to it, are discussed: reflective equilibrium, overlapping consensus and the idea of public reason. The first aims to highlight well-balanced judgments, considering comparisons and evaluations of possible alternatives. The second seeks to emphasize the need for a common foundation for a political conception of justice and, thus, to favor its justification. The third seeks to emphasize that the essential constitutional elements are the specific content of public reason and, as such, the central core of public justification.