Preview

Law and Justice

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
4692 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Law and Justice
Law and Justice

Abstract

Justice is the quality of being fair or just. This is not an exhaustive definition of justice. Different philosophers have defined justice in different ways. Justice is a concept that provides balance between law and morality. Rawls proposition for law and justice has been accepted by world judicial fraternity as a landmark vision to understand the system. Similarly it has earned a good amount of criticism which shows the basic strength of the thought. As such: Rawls theories of Justice has to be checked and rechecked not because it is best but because it will provide us a starting point to understand this whole world of law and justice. In this paper an attempt has been made to understand and analyze Rawls theory of justice. This work has been done to distinguish the concept of justice as propounded by utilitarian’s (Aristotle[1] and Benthem[2]) vis-a-vis Rawls. Finally an analysis is done to examine how well the concept of justice given by Rawls is relevant in India, a multilayered pluralistic society.

Introduction:

Justice is defined as the quality of being just or fair. Justice is used to mean what is appropriate, deserved, right, fair , justice is said to be achieved when an unjust act is redressed and the victim feels whole again.[3] Justice also means the wrongdoer is held liable for his behavior. Aristotle puts forward that in its general sense justice is an inclusive term equivalent to righteousness. According to Aristotle justice with which we are concerned has two branches: distributive and corrective[4].

Distributive justice takes into consideration the merits of the parties; corrective justice is concerned only with restoring a balance which has been disturbed[5]. The distribution is a question not of equality, but of right proportion; and this applies to retribution[6]. The situation of bringing back to original position is corrective form of justice whereas distributive principle refers to share of that equal number of

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    What is Justice? Justice is a concept of moral rightness based on ethics; rationality, law, religion or fairness, as well as taking into account the inborn rights of all human beings and citizens, the right of all people and individuals to equal protection before the law of their civil rights, without discrimination. Justice is one of the great concerns of humankind. It is something for which people over centuries have been willing to struggle and even die. Examples of Justice are novels 12 Angry Men and The Green Mile.…

    • 510 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    What is justice? This may seem like a simple question to answer but for many in today’s society it is not. Individuals throughout society have their own explanation of justice. It is a word in which every person has a different meaning. Although "Justice" has a vast list of meanings, it can somewhat be defined. Loosely, it can be defined as “The quality of being just; fairness”. Although what justice means to me is being punished for a crime that has been committed. The offender has to pay for his/her causes. Punishments include variations such as death sentence or imprisonment etc. For most of the people justice has moreover the same meaning. Personally I believe that punishment should fit the crime. Two wrongs do not make a right. I believe that every victim has a right to get justice. In the eye of the law , justice should be given fairly to everyone no matter how but it should be given to some extent. Justice is usually…

    • 685 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    HCM 420 Mastery Exercises

    • 2182 Words
    • 8 Pages

    10. True or false? Justice is defined as the active ethical response in each situation so that people in equal situations are treated fairly.…

    • 2182 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    According to Shapland (2011) Justice is defined as the quality of being righteous, fair; equitableness or moral correctness. Justice is a term that can be very tricky and many people have often and easily confused with or used interchangeably with the term fairness. In most circumstances, whether at your workplace, your school, your local pub, or in the courtroom, people want to believe that they always want to feel that they deserve and are owed to be treated fairly after being wronged. There are two different types of justice such as Restorative Justice and Retributive Justice. Restorative justice has recently become a very popular yet controversial topic. With it being such a controversial topic there have been a few key elements of the restorative justice program that have been at a longstanding debate. They key elements consist of weather restorative justice should be defined as a result or a process, whether the approach should contain some type of form of punishment, and lastly, whether the approach should contain some type or form of punishment, and lastly whether or not it should be considered as a replacement to the traditional criminal justice system or be integrated into it.…

    • 227 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Therefore, in order to properly consider what is meant by the term "justice," a logical, if not basic, first step is to look up the term in a dictionary. Here, it is defined as 'the quality of being just; rightness; fairness; to treat someone in a fair way'. It is often thought of as the foundation of the judicial system and that it can be achieved by recourse to law. Similarly the term "forgiveness" is defined in the dictionary as 'ceasing to blame or hold resentment against; remit or pardon'. It is the willingness to abandon one's right to resentment and negative judgment towards a person who has unjustly injured us, whilst fostering the undeserved qualities of compassion, generosity, and even love towards him or her. Finally "reconciliation" is defined as 'to re-establish friendship between; to settle or resolve as in a dispute; to make consistent or compatible'. Simply, it refers to the process of changing something thoroughly and adjusting it to something else that is a standard.…

    • 1092 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Justice is a concept that has changed and developed throughout history. The foundation of the modern justice system in the western world began in Athens just over two thousand years ago. Many philosophers had their own conceptions about what justice truly is, however, Plato proved to be the most influential. Before Plato, many men shared Polemarchus’ belief that justice meant giving good to friends and evil to enemies. In his book, The Republic, Plato sets out to define the true definition of justice. Plato states that justice is when men to put aside irrational desires for the greater good of society. If civilization were to follow Polemarchus’ view of justice, society would become anarchy. People would punish those that have wronged them…

    • 465 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Aristotle, a Greek philosopher, was born 384 years before Christ (BC). He separated justice into two parts – distributive justice and corrective justice. Distributive justice is concerned with the fair distribution of society’s wealth. He went onto say that this wealth should be spread according to merit and an individual’s contributions into society. So this system relies on giving to those who have contributed in some way rather than to those who are needy. Aristotle said that distribution on the basis of people needs merely rewards the lazy and so would be unjust. Corrective justice he said, is needed to ensure that individuals can keep their entitlements. He believed that if someone is to steal from another the court should ensure that the offender does not gain and the victim does not lose out. This idea can still be seen in areas of law such as compensatory damages for negligence.…

    • 3979 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Philosopher King

    • 656 Words
    • 3 Pages

    What is Socrates definition of justice – someone who is good and just and does good things…

    • 656 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Theory of Justice

    • 972 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In A Theory of Justice, Rawls begins with the statement that, ‘‘Justice is the first virtue of social institution,’’ meaning that a good society is one structured according to principals of justice (1998). John Rawls states that when a person is covered in the veil of ignorance, a society without his/her own status known must begin in that society. They must provide a place that they could relate to for someday they may have bad luck and end up as a person on the lowest end of the ladder in society. This is one way to have a just and fair society for all to live. A place where status does not matter and no one would ever feel bad for the situation they are in.…

    • 972 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The concept of justice involves fair, just and equal treatment. These facets are found in a person’s personal, moral courage and integrity however fairness and equality can often be limited by prejudice and discrimination. This means that those who fall victim to injustice are not subjects because of their own actions but are rather victims of a system, society or collective action.…

    • 1309 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Views on Justice

    • 586 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Justice means to me the moral act of determining the outcome of a situation by truthfulness and fairness, apolitical decisions without the influence of money and corrupt power or just natural laws or human nature to know the difference of right and wrong, justice can be delivered to one who might be a bully in a school yard, you would not punish him through the courts but rather teach a harsh lesson or a lesser punishment to those of violent nature which would receive a more severe punishment.…

    • 586 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Based on this definition, justice will be interpreted as the ideal of righteousness or right action, based on truth, fact or reason.…

    • 1622 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Justice In The Holocaust

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages

    What specifically defines justice? Justice is a complicated and nearly impossible thing to achieve. For example, Polish Holocaust survivor, Samuel Rajzman testified at the Nuremberg trials. He told the court about his traumatic experiences and how he saw "his mother, sister and two brothers arrive and go to the gas chambers" (Jockusch). Later, he found his wife’s documents and a photograph of…

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Vigilante Justice

    • 1315 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Justice: There is no true definition of justice as some believe that this subjective term is something that exists outside of the law while other thinkers believe that it something that is achieved through law. For Derrida, a given act or judicial decision cannot be considered just or unjust since no such decision exists rather it is an application of a rule (Derrida, 2002,p. 243).…

    • 1315 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Distributive justice - Just distribution in society, structured by various moral, legal, and cultural rules and principles.…

    • 371 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays