This course follows directly on from LAWS4335 and will further develop the approach and themes covered in that course, by focussing upon Habermas' more recent work Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy. This work is currently at the very centre of debate in legal, social and political theory circles and takes its point of departure from the insights into contemporary law and politics alluded to, but not systematically elaborated in Theory of Communicative Action. But now Habermas takes law as his specific focus with the aim of trying to locate - more adequately than other competing theories have done - the place and function of law in contemporary modern/postmodern societies. Specific themes to be explored include: the role that law plays in reflexively integrating highly complex, decentred and pluralist societies; the rights and principles law must embody for it to perform this role; the model of democracy that is, in turn, entailed by these rights, and finally the reciprocal relations between law, rights, society and democracy that lead Habermas to call his theory a discourse theory of law and democracy. As in LAWS4335, these themes will be explored comparatively, always placing Habermas' theory within the context of other competing theories. The result of this comparative approach is that by the end of this course students should not only acquire a good grounding in one important theorist, but also gain a sense of what is happening in contemporary legal and social theory at large.