We present to our readers a book by the American philosopher John Rawls (1921–2002), which was first published in 1971 and became one of the most famous and influential philosophical works in the English-speaking world of the last decades of the 20th century. It presents the clearest and most precise formulation of the principles that should form the basis of a just social order. The author considers the central ideas and goals of his concept, which he calls “justice as fairness,” as both the basis of the philosophical concept of constitutional democracy and a viable alternative to the doctrines previously dominant in the Western philosophical tradition - classical utilitarianism and intuitionism. The book has a pronounced interdisciplinary character - it is written at the intersection of political philosophy, political economy, sociology, ethics, using the means of modern analytical philosophy, game theory and decisions. The book constituted an entire era in ethical and legal research and became a standard textbook for American and Western European universities. It will be useful to philosophers, sociologists, political scientists, economists, lawyers, students and graduate students of relevant specialties, as well as all interested readers.