Fairness as a Meta-Norm: Structural Legitimacy and the Meta-Right to Fair Institutions
Political philosophy has long been preoccupied with the problem of legitimacy. Under what conditions may an institution claim moral authority over free and equal persons? Classical answers turn to the fairness of procedures, the justice of outcomes, or the moral acceptability of coercive rules under conditions of public reason. Rawls famously grounds legitimacy in principles…

