ABSTRACT
The extraordinary complexity of the concept of legitimacy is aggravated by the fact that there are divergent approaches to legitimacy which are adopted by different professions. This chapter discusses a reconstruction of the ‘moral practical self-understanding of modern European law’ to explore what might be the foundation of its claim for legitimacy underpinning the laws of the member states of the European Union. By contrasting the two political forms of totalitarianism and democracy, it may be tempting to conclude that only a democracy can claim legitimacy, because only a democracy is concerned to maintain the possibility of democratic debate. In both totalitarian and democratic political forms, the claim of authority which any particular regime makes will entail a claim that the regime represents the people, and embodies the will of the people. In totalitarianism, the claim to legitimacy is oriented towards an identified unity, a unity which encloses within it all power, knowledge and right.
