Law and Justice

• Defining Justice - Key words for describing Justice

  • Fairness
  • Equity
  • Rights
  • Equality
  • Impartiality
  • Morality
  • Accountability
  • Redress
  • Balance
  • Restoration
• Defining Justice

  Principle of fairness and principle of rights. Equality under the law. Ensures individuals receive equitable treatment and rights are respected and protected.
• Aristotle - Natural law and Justice

  • Aristotle viewed justice as a central virtue in both ethical and political life, crucial for the well being of the community
  • He distinguished between two main types of justice: Distributive and corrective
• Aristotle - Natural law and Justice

  Distributive Justice = Fair allocation of resources and honours within society, based on the principle of proportionality.

  Means rewards or resources should be distributed according to each person's contribution to merit
• Aristotle - Natural law and Justice

  Corrective justice = Deals with rectifying wrongs or imbalances resulting from transactions, whether voluntary (contracts) or involuntary (theft)

  Aims to restore a balance by ensuring that any loss or damage is compensated
• Aristotle - Natural law and Justice

  • Justice involves equity, allowing the law to be applied with consideration for the specifics of each case
  • recognising the rigid application can sometimes lead to unjust outcomes
• Aristotle - The law and justice

  1. Promoting the common good: Laws guide individuals towards actions that benefit the community
• Aristotle - The law and Justice

  1. Cultivating Virtue: Encourage ethical behaviour and the development of moral character
• Aristotle - The law and Justice

  1. Ensuring fair distribution: Laws help in the fair allocation of resources based on merit
• Aristotle - The law and Justice

  1. Rectifying wrongs: They provide means to address and correct injustices
• Aristotle - The law and Justice

  1. Providing Equity: Laws are interpreted with flexibility to ensure fair outcomes in unique cases
• Aristotle - The law and Justice

  • Promoting the common good
  • Cultivating virtue
  • Ensuring fair distribution
  • Rectifying wrongs
  • Providing Equity
• Aristotle - The law and Justice

  • Law plays crucial role in achieving justice by providing a framework for both distributive and corrective justice
  • Means to guide individuals towards virtuous and just behaviour
• Aquinas - Natural law and Justice

  • Saw justice as allocating to each individual their due, based on moral and ethical principles
  • Justice portrayed key virtue for societal harmony, guaranteeing fairness for everyone
  • Justice extends to supporting the common good, focusing on the well being and prosperity of the community
• Aquinas - Natural law and Justice

  Recognised different types of justice

  • Distributive justice: allocation of common goods in proportion to merit and needs of individuals
• Aquinas - Natural law and Justice

  Different types of Justice

  • Commutative Justice: Focusing on fairness in agreements and exchanges between people
• Aquinas - The law and Justice

  • Reflecting divine order
  • Guiding towards virtue
  • Maintaining social harmony
  • Upholding Natural law
  • Promoting the common good
• Aquinas - The law and Justice

  1. Reflecting Divine order: Laws align with divine principles and the moral universe
• Aquinas - The law and Justice

  1. Guiding towards virtue: Laws encourage moral behaviour and discourage wrongdoing
• Aquinas - The law and Justice

  1. Maintaining social harmony: Regulate interactions to prevent conflict and injustice
• Aquinas - The law and Justice

  1. Upholding the natural law: Laws are based on human's nature intrinsic rights and duties
• Aquinas - The law and Justice

  1. Promoting the common good: The ultimate aim of laws is the welfare and flourishing of the community
• Bentham - Utilitarianism and Justice

  • Involves assessing laws, policies and actions based on their consequences for societal well being
  • Argued that utility of any policy could be quantitatively assessed by considering factors such as intensity, duration, certainty and proximity
  • Calculation aims to ensure their actions and legal frameworks promote the greatest happiness
• Bentham - Utilitarianism and Justice

  Intensity = The degree of pleasure or pain that an action is expected to produce
• Bentham - Utilitarianism and Justice

  Duration = How long the effects of an action are likely to last
• Bentham - Utilitarianism and Justice

  Certainty = The likelihood that an action will actually result in the anticipated pleasure or pain
• Bentham - Utilitarianism and Justice

  Proximity = The immediacy of the effects of an action on the individuals involved
• Bentham - The law and justice

  • Maximising happiness
  • Minimising suffering
  • Rational and Empirical assessment
  • Equality in Consideration
  • Preventive Justice
• Bentham - The law and justice

  1. Maximising happiness: Laws aim to increase societal welfare
• Bentham - The law and justice

  1. Minimising suffering: The legal system works to reduce pain and harm
• Bentham - The law and justice

  1. Minimising suffering: The legal system works to reduce pain and harm
• Bentham - The law and justice

  1. Rational and Empirical Assessment: Laws are reviewed based on their outcomes, adjusting to serve the greater good
• Bentham - The law and justice

  1. Equality in Consideration: Each individual's well being is equally valued in lawmaking
• Bentham - The law and justice

  1. Preventative Justice: Laws seek to deter potential injustices before they occur
• Marx and Justice

  • Karl Marx's concept of justice is tied to his critique of capitalism and his vision of a classless society
  • Marx, justice in capitalist societies is inherently flawed
• Marx and Justice

  • Marx's view, justice involves the elimination of class distinctions and working class exploitation
  • All individuals have access to of resources and opportunities
  • leading them to human needs and potential
• Marx - The law and Justice

  • Abolition of Private Property
  • Elimination of Class Distinctions
  • Distribution according to needs
  • Promotion of collective welfare
  • Facilitation of social transformation
• Marx - The law and justice

  1. Abolition of private property: Transitioning ownership of production means to the community
• Marx - The law and Justice

  1. Elimination of Class Distinction: Laws should promote equal rights and eliminate class based privileges
• Marx - The law and Justice

  1. Distribution according to need: Resources distributed based on individual needs, not wealth or status