What are the conditions under which political power is legitimate? Under what conditions it is illegitimate? What makes the difference between law and justice? What is political justice? Thinking on these issues the author addresses the tradition of political philosophy; this tradition originates in European Enlightenment. Не engages in dialog with such classical authors as J.Bentham and K.Marx, T.Hobbes and J.Locke, J.-J.Rousseau and I.Kant, D.Hume and J.S.Mill. Among the political thinkers of the 20-th century who participate in this dialog are V.Pareto, J.Rawls, A.MacIntyre, R.Dworkin, M.Sandel, R.Nozick, Ch.Taylor, M.Walzer, W.Kymlicka.