ABSTRACT
In his paper, 'The Law of Peoples', John Rawls claims that the toleration by liberals of well-ordered non-liberal regimes at the international level is parallel to the liberal toleration of other conceptions of the good in the domestic case. From this, he concludes that the appropriate relationship for liberal societies to have to these regimes is one of 'principled toleration'. Rawls believes that well-ordered hierarchical societies can be represented in the original position. If this is so, then they can be included in a law of peoples that is compatible with liberal ideas of justice. As an aside, it is interesting to note that non-liberal societies wish to be treated in the international forum as their citizens wish to be treated in the domestic forum. Non-liberal societies often appeal to a notion of national sovereignty, that what occurs within their own borders is, in effect, a private matter for the nation itself to deal with.
