Justice (Meaning and Explanation)

We explain what justice is, its different concepts, its types, characteristics, examples and why it is a value.

Justice - law — Justice is the willingness to give everyone what they deserve.

What is justice?

Justice is the virtue of giving each person what belongs to them that is, to organize a society according to the principles of honesty, equity and reason.

We speak of justice when one acts correctly and in accordance with reason, that is, when one has the will to act objectively and taking into account the common well-being.

The term justice comes from latin iustitia (derived from ius“right”) and can have different meanings depending on the scope specific in which it is used. For example:

In moral philosophy, it has to do with living honestly, that is, in an upright and honest way, committed to the truth and the good.
In law, it refers to the correct compliance with the laws and the differentiation between those actions that are desirable and those that are reprehensible by individuals in society.
In religion, we speak of divine justice to refer to the punishments that God exercises on his followers when they disobey his commandments or contradict the moral code taught in his doctrine.

However, the conception of what is or is not fair can vary over time, and also between one culture and another.

Justice is also related to other moral values such as honesty, responsibility, equity or impartiality. Just, then, are those situations in which the truth triumphs and a correct retribution of what is due takes place.

For example, if of four workers involved in the construction of a house, only two work full-time and the other two part-time, the amount of effort made by the former will be greater and, in fairness, their financial remuneration must also be greater.

See also: Injustice

Characteristics of justice

In general terms, justice is characterized by the following:

It is a virtue or moral quality.
Pursue the common good and equality before the law.
It guarantees order and peace in a society.
It has a cultural foundation (in accordance with social consensus) and a formal foundation (in accordance with what is established in the laws).
It is not arbitrary, but objective, impartial and rational.
It is linked to the values of honesty, fairness and truth.

Justice as a value

Social justice — Justice is one of the fundamental values of humanity.

Justice is one of the fundamental moral values, which serves as the basis for many other virtues. The legal, juridical and ethical systems of a society are built on it.

In justice, the distinction between good and bad is key to be able to punish negative actions and reward positive ones, in accordance with the provisions of laws and regulations in general. Through this system, society gives each individual what they deserve, without leaving room for subjectivities or second intentions and taking into account as much as possible well-being, both common and individual.

The notion of justice It is culturally and historically determined: what in one era may be considered fair, in others may be considered unfair, and vice versa. However, the importance of justice as a central value of a society is common to all times and all societies.

You may be interested: Elements of the Crime

Unfair acts, for their part, violate people's rights and threaten the peace, stability and freedom of a society. Injustices can occur in different areas of life, such as work, business, politics, among others.

See also: Values

Types of justice

Depending on its purpose in society and the aspect of life it is responsible for regulating, we can speak of different types of justice.

Distributive justice

Distributive justice is that which seeks the fair distribution of goods and resources within a society, to guarantee well-being and a dignified life for all citizens.

In some cases, goods are awarded according to the merit of individuals, and in others, according to their needs. Through these two principles, we seek to build a more equitable society in terms of the use of its resources.

For example, distributive justice occurs when the assessment or tax system seeks the contribution of resources by the wealthy sectors of society, in order to help those who have fewer opportunities.

Distributive justice

procedural justice

procedural justice deals with the regulation of the judicial process that is, the formal aspects of the administrative and legal exercise of the State, to guarantee that all citizens are treated with the same rules and the same criteria.

For example, procedural justice exists when the legal actions of the State are in accordance with the law, that is, objective and impartial, and do not establish any type of distinction regarding the personal characteristics of the individual, such as their sex, their religion, their ethnicity. or their social class.

Thus, When the law is not applied impartially in a trial, the sentence is considered flawed and the person tried can be retried with other judges and under other conditions that do guarantee a correct procedure.

Retributive justice

Retributive justice seeks to ensure that the punishments and sanctions meted out by the Judicial Branch of the State are entirely proportional to what they condemn. In other words, that sentences are fair in relation to the crimes committed.

The basic principle of retributive justice is that individuals be treated the same way they treat others. To achieve this, the State is responsible for imposing a fair punishment, which returns to society the balance against which the crime violated.

For example, there is retributive justice cWhen, in a trial, a fraudster is sentenced to pay a fine equivalent to the stolen money in order to deprive him of the advantage he obtained at the expense of others.

Restorative justice

restorative justice seeks to remedy or compensate for the damage caused by a third party to a particular individual in such a way that he recovers his well-being, or at least receives compensation for the damage suffered.

This type of justice focuses on the violated needs of the victim, giving the latter an active role in resolving the conflict. The offenders, for their part, must compensate for the damage done satisfying the needs of his victims.

For example, restorative justice takes place when a pharmaceutical company that has marketed expired and ineffective products is forced by a judge to pay the injured parties a large sum of money, in order to compensate or repair the damage done.

Examples of justice

Some examples of application of justice are:

The suspension of a university student who was caught cheating on an exam.
The collection of taxes to be able to subsidize the electricity consumption of the most vulnerable households.
The sentence that condemns an assailant to carry out work for the community, in order to compensate for the damage he has done.
The equitable distribution of an inheritance among the heirs.
The release of a detainee who has been unjustly or improperly convicted.
The imposition of a million-dollar fine on a company that evaded paying its taxes for years.

Differences between justice and equity

Justice and equity are very related concepts, since Equity is the ability to dispense justice while respecting the particularities or specific circumstances of each individual at a given time. In this way, equity allows behaviors and situations to be regulated in a fair and equitable manner.

Equity does not mean giving everyone the same thing, but giving each person what they deserve. That is why it is also said that equity is one of the ways in which justice is manifested. For example: gender equality means fair treatment between men and women, which respects their conditions and individualities.

Difference between equality and equity

The symbol of justice

The symbol of justice par excellence is the scales an instrument used since ancient times to measure the weight of objects. This instrument represents fair, exact treatment, tailored to each situation.

However, there are different symbols to represent justice, some of which are extremely old and, curiously, tend to appear in different cultures and geographies.

According to Egyptian mythology, for example, In the world of the dead, the god Anubis weighed the hearts of the recently deceased with a scale and placed a feather on the opposite saucer. Those whose hearts were light were admitted to paradise, while the rest were devoured by an infernal beast.

The Greeks, for their part, had the goddess Dicea or Diké (baptized Iustitia by the Romans), who was represented holding a scale. This goddess symbolized human justice, and it was said that she went to Zeus whenever a judge failed to fulfill his role and was unjust.

Beginning with the European Renaissance, this Greek goddess began to be represented with blindfolded, which alludes to his objectivity and impartiality because not being able to see, it makes no difference.

History of the concept of justice

Throughout history, numerous disciplines have dedicated themselves to thinking about justice and trying to find a definition. In fact, The first forms of justice date back to Antiquity when religion and law were part of the same thing.

For example, the ten commandments that the prophet Moses gave to the Jewish people in the Old Testament constituted at the same time a moral, religious and legal code, with which the Israelites had to guide their actions so as not to incur divine punishment. Seen this way, God played the role of judge and his laws allowed life to be organized in a time before modern justice.

One of the first known codes of justice is the Code of Hammurabi written around 1750 BC. C. by the Babylonian king Hammurabi (1810-1750 BC). There, the laws that the people had to comply with and the penalties that would be imposed if they did not comply were detailed.

Likewise, many ancient philosophers were busy reflecting on justice and what was the ideal way to exercise it. Among them are the Greeks Socrates (470 BC-399 BC), for whom knowledge of what is just was enough to act properly; Plato (427 BC-347 BC), for whom justice implied that each person do and possess what is their own; and Aristotle (384 BC-322 BC), who maintained that justice was proportional equality, that is, equality that does not prevent recognizing and rewarding individual merit.

The Romans, for their part, were great legal thinkers, and much of the modern understanding of law is inherited from the famous Roman law.

During the Middle Ages, justice was also reflected on. Thinkers such as Saint Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274) considered it a natural law, that is, given by God, and that is why for many centuries the Church was in charge of dispensing justice in Christian Europe.

The latter changed from the Renaissance, when the modern concept of justice was built. Numerous philosophers and jurists contributed to this, including Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677), Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716) and Montesquieu (1689-1755).

Today, we understand justice to be the set of rules and norms that determine the actions of State institutions and the way in which individual rights and obligations must be fulfilled to guarantee life in harmony. Likewise, it is possible to use this term to refer to the Judicial Branch, one of the three powers of the modern republican State.

References

Barp Fontana, L. (2008). Justice as a social virtue. Academic Magazine of the Faculty of Law of La Salle University, (11), 51-78.
Online Spanish Etymological Dictionary. (sf). Justice. https://etimologias.dechile.net/
Royal Spanish Academy. (2023). Justice. In Pan-Hispanic dictionary of legal Spanish. https://dpej.rae.es/
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2023). Justice. In Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/