On Walzer's hermeneutics of justice, Gadamer's criterion of openness and northern Ireland's Belfast agreement

Abstract

In this article, I draw on the work of Michael Walzer and Hans‐Georg Gadamer to develop a hermeneutic, or interpretative, approach to the question of a just constitutional settlement for Northern Ireland. I move away from Walzer's ‘shared meanings’ approach to questions of justice, and instead focus on different unionist and nationalist interpretations of the principle of self‐determination. I argue that Gadamer's hermeneutic criterion of openness can be used to adjudicate between various older and contemporary unionist and nationalist interpretations of this principle. I also analyse Northern Ireland's Belfast Agreement as an attempt to accommodate different, legitimate unionist and nationalist interpretations of the principle of self‐determination.

Notes

An earlier version of this was presented to the PSAI Annual Conference, Newry, October 1998. I would like to thank the following for subsequent comments: Dr Shane O'Neill; Georgia Warnke; participants at the QUB Postgraduate Reading Group. The article was completed in mid‐1999.