We critically assess integrative social contracts theory (ISCT) and show that the concept particularly lacks of moral justification of substantive hypernorms. By drawing on Habermasian philosophy, in particular discourse ethics and its recent application in the theory of deliberative democracy,...

Despite Westphalian notions of the social contract as an instrument that secures rights and freedoms, the social contract is not a guarantor of rights and freedoms as demonstrated by intellectuals such as Hegel, Marx and Foucault