‘Social Justice’ could hardly be bettered as a phrase: it has a nice, modern ring about it, and no discernible meaning. The modernity of the phrase must, I think, be traced to the word ‘social', because after all ‘justice’ is a very old word, and in any case the modern campaigners do not seem to be so intense about that part of the catch-phrase. We are all, it must be agreed, ‘socialists’ in some sense nowadays, whatever our views on justice may be. It is understandable therefore that in the phrase ‘social justice’ the emphasis will be on ‘social', and that the word ‘justice’ will be added merely for rhythmic reasons. The rather medieval-sounding question—but is not all justice social?—is thus irrelevant from the start; and any attempt to understand how the same groups of people can demand at one and the same time the abolition of the death-penalty and the introduction of birth-control, or can deplore the control of government by capital whilst enthusing about the control of capital by government, would do best not to start from the notion of ‘justice'.