Rawls, Law-Making and Liberal Democratic Toleration: From 'Theory' to 'Political Liberalism' and 'The Law of Peoples.'

This paper articulates Rawls's conception of toleration within international political and law-making activity set out in "The Law of Peoples" within and by reference to the architectonic first set out in "Theory" and then recast in "Political Liberalism." The aim of so doing is to shed much needed light on Rawls's discussion in "Peoples" of so-called decent well-ordered peoples and of benevolent absolutisms.