Summary
Justice can mean either lawfulness or fairness, since
injustice is lawlessness and unfairness. The laws encourage people
to behave virtuously, so the just person, who by definition is lawful,
will necessarily be virtuous. Virtue differs from justice because
it deals with one’s moral state, while justice deals with one’s
relations with others. Universal justice is that state of a person
who is generally lawful and fair. Particular justice deals with
the “divisible” goods of honor, money, and safety, where one person’s
gain of such goods results in a corresponding loss by someone else.
There are two forms of particular justice: distributive
and rectificatory. Distributive justice deals with the distribution
of wealth among the members of a community. It employs geometric
proportion: what each person receives is directly proportional to
his or her merit, so a good person will receive more than a bad
person. This justice is a virtuous mean between the vices of giving
more than a person deserves and giving less.
Rectificatory justice remedies unequal distributions of
gain and loss between two people. Rectification may be called for
in cases of injustice involving voluntary transactions like trade
or involuntary transactions like theft or assault. Justice is restored
in a court case, where the judge ensures that the gains and losses
of both parties are equaled out, thus restoring a mean.
Justice must be distributed proportionately. For instance,
a shoemaker and a farmer cannot exchange one shoe for one harvest,
since shoes and harvests are not of equal value. Rather, the shoemaker would
have to give a number of shoes proportional in value to the crops
the farmer provides. Money reflects the demand placed on various
goods and allows for just exchanges.
Political justice and domestic justice are related but
distinct. Political justice is governed by the rule of law, while
domestic justice relies more on respect. Political justice is based
in part on natural law, which is the same for all people, and in
part on particular legal conventions, which vary from place to place.
An agent is responsible only for acts of injustice performed
voluntarily. We call injustice done out of ignorance “mistakes,”
injustice done because plans went awry “misadventures,” and injustice done
knowingly but without premeditation “injuries.” Ignorance is an
excuse only if it is reasonably unavoidable.
