Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-7tdvq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-07T14:16:42.698Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - ‘Justice’ is an Ambiguous Word

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2020

Get access

Summary

The value of laws was, and still is, assessed in relation to the notion of ‘justice’.

Even this notion, however, turns out to be strongly ambiguous.

First of all, the term is employed with different meanings. It is used indifferently to refer to justice and to its administration.

The first meaning indicates a yardstick, a basic principle of living together, or an aspiration – something people aim at in their own interest or in their relationship with others. For this meaning we have a wealth of adjectives (social justice, distributive justice, retributive justice, and so on), all of which qualify the term giving it a particular meaning in relation to the field to which it is applied.

The second meaning of the term ‘justice’ describes a way of managing that eminently practical mechanism, namely the system humans have devised (although in very different ways) to solve controversies, to establish who is right and who is wrong in relationships between private parties (for instance, regarding the validity of a contract or a will), or between citizens and the public administration (for instance, to ascertain whether a license to build a house can be denied), or between the state and someone suspected of having committed a crime. When we talk about lawyers, judges, public prosecutors, court hearings, prisons, ministers, the lack of xerox machines, and so on, we use the term ‘justice’ in this second meaning.

When we say that justice is not functioning properly, we refer to its administration. On the contrary, when someone says that there is no justice in a certain country, they refer to the fundamental principles of living together. It is also said that laws (and/or behaviour) in a country are not in keeping with justice.

Even thus specified, this term is interpreted in very different ways.

Have you ever heard someone, apart from madmen and provocateurs, publicly declare that they pursue injustice?

Whatever the purpose, and regardless of the means used to achieve it, everybody describes themselves as a just person, as someone who aims to achieve justice.

In the name of this principle revolutions have broken out, uprisings have been stifled, genocides have been perpetrated, appalling crimes have been committed.

Type
Chapter
Information
On Rules , pp. 36 - 38
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Print publication year: 2016

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×