Law, Justice, Democracy, and the Clash of Cultures

"Michel Rosenfeld began a project more than a dozen years ago of articulating a doctrine of 'comprehensive pluralism' that could respond to the problems that liberal democratic societies face, given the facts of both reasonable and unreasonable challenges to the core values of the Enlightenment project. Sadly, events since 9/11 have made the political and normative task he set for himself even more urgent, a testament to the prescience of that early work. His new book tackles the problems of the present, exemplified in the confrontation between the West and the Muslim 'other', with great frankness and clarity. Once again the reader is treated to the rare talent of a thinker who is genuinely himself pluralist, and who can thus show that mainstream political philosophy and constitutional and legal theory, on the one hand, and postmodern and social theories, on the other, are engaged in a common debate in which all have something valuable to contribute."
- David Dyzenhaus
Professor of Law and Philosophy, University of Toronto