ABSTRACT
Compromise is conceptualized as enabling the broadening of the circle of interested parties participating in the law making process, and in this instance law is viewed as encompassing a temporary balance. Rights are not found in a pre-given conception of the 'good', but their determination involves the active participation of citizens, being anchored in their democratic common sense. A proceduralist understanding of rights promoting the rights of individuals should not be compromised for the sake of advancing a communitarian understanding of collective rights. Surveillance, technical and operational assessments, and regulation, are the properties of disciplinary power, resulting in the production of obedient bodies. The force of law should be tempered and its legitimacy is sustained by the simultaneous reproduction of the belief in the objectivity of the claims it encompasses. Jurgen Habermas's thesis is that law should provide the procedures and structures enabling the political participation of affected groups.
