John Rawls's 1971 masterwork — arguing that just institutions are those principles we would choose behind a 'veil of ignorance' (not knowing our position in society) — that rational choosers would select two principles: equal basic liberties for all, and inequalities only if they benefit the least advantaged (the difference principle).
Creates the most sophisticated liberal egalitarian theory of justice — Rawls's contractarian method (veil of ignorance, original position) provides a procedure for deriving principles of justice that has structured Anglo-American political philosophy for 50 years and continues to be the reference point for liberal and libertarian debates.
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