The Idea of Law and Constitutional State

The Political Legacy of Enlightment

Abstract

From Rousseau to Hegel, the political philosophy of the Enlightenment has as its main objective to deal with the rational and objective justification of law and the State as constructions of the will and, therefore, given their validity in terms of a sui generis legitimacy. Self-determination and political autonomy take place with the link established by the rationality and universality of the law as the only legitimate legal foundation of social dependency. In this case, self-government stemming from the idea of the law
leads us to assume, from an objective point of view, the need for general principles that are universally binding, without
exception, as justification and foundation of the rule of law of the modern constitutional State.