Justice and Freedom. A Discussion of Justification and Legitimacy in Liberal Political Theory.

The fellowship will finance the completion (1 1/2 years) of the appicant's PhD-degree at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Toronto, or the writing, preparation for defence and publication of her thesis in political philosophy. The aim of t he thesis will be to explore how justice and freedom must be conceived of in order for legitimate political authority to arise. The thesis will refute an understanding of right that is particularly predominant in contemporary politics an that can be trace d back to the pervasive political philosophy of John Locke. This understanding of political philosophy holds that states are not necessary to the establishment of justice, entailing that only minimal states that do not redistribute resources can be coerci vely established to govern individuals' interactions. By means of an investigation of the underlying assumptions about right, it will be shown that this view rests on a faulty understanding of the relationship between justice and free