Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen has written one of the most highly acclaimed works of political philosophy since John Rawls’s famous treatise. In The Idea of Justice (2009), Sen attempts to derive the norms of a just political-legal order, but this effort is undermined by his confusion of impartiality with ethical objectivity.

Douglas B. Rasmussen is a professor of philosophy at St. John’s University.
Douglas J. Den Uyl is vice president of educational programs and a senior fellow at the Liberty Fund.
Civil Liberties and Human RightsGovernment and PoliticsLaw and LibertyPolitical Theory