JUSTICE AND

FAIRNESS
OBJECTIVES

At  the  end  of  the  lesson,  the  students should  be  able  to:
1. Articulate what justice and fairness are.
2. Critique justice and fairness.
3. Articulate and critique the divisions and kinds of justice
FAIRNESS

• It refers to the level of even-handedness in dispensing

justice whereby claims are recognized in order of their
legal and contractual priority.
• It has been used with regard to an ability to judge
without reference to one’s feelings or interests.
THE  CONCEPT  OF JUSTICE

• It is a theory (philosophical and legal) by which fairness is administered.

• Plato: justice is a command from God.
• John Locke: Justice is derived from the natural law.
• Social Contract theorists: It is about the mutual agreement of everyone concerned.
• John Stuart Mill: It is about something that has the best consequences (maximity of
happiness)
• Egalitarians: Justice exists only in the context of equality.
• John Rawls: (Distributive) Justice is a form of fairness.
PRINCIPLES OF JUSTICE
• It is giving each person what he/she deserves; or giving what is due.
• The term justice often means the whole array of virtues: full and
complete moral goodness (cf. Mt 5:6, 20).
• The perpetual and constant will to render to each one his right (cf. ST,
II-II, q. 58, a. 1; CCC, 1807)
• Principles of Justice
• According to Aristotle, “equals should be treated equals and unequals
unequally.”
“Equality asks us to give the exact amount
to each one. Equity asks to give one what is
needed.”

“Justice is giving our neighbor what is

theirs. Charity is giving them what is ours.”
PROPERTIES OF JUSTICE

The three essential properties of justice:

i. Justice always refers to another person. Strictly speaking, there
are no obligations of justice toward oneself.
ii. The object of justice is not a free gift, but something that is strictly
due.
iii. Justice does not demand an approximate compensation, but only
what is exactly due, neither more nor less.
DIVISION OF JUSTICE ACCORDING
TO THOMAS AQUINAS
• Legal, general, or social justice is directly and primarily aimed at the
common good
• Legal Justice - duties of the individual toward the community (ex. Taxes,
cooperation in public affairs)
• Particular justice is directed to the private good
• Distributive Justice – duties of the community toward the individual
• that inclines the ruler of a community to equitably distribute burdens and honors among its
members according to their capacities and merits.
• Commutative Justice – duties of an individual toward other individuals (cf. CCC,
2236, 2411.)
• private person’s stable determination to give another private person what is strictly his due
• Vindictive or Penal Justice - which inclines the ruler of a community to punish
crime with the right penalties.
CATEGORIES OF JUSTICE
COMPENSATORY JUSTICE

• refers to the extent to which people are fairly compensated

for their injuries by those who have injured them; just
compensation is proportional to the loss inflicted on a
person.
• concerns the fairness when restoring to a person what the
person lost when he or she was wronged by someone else.
CONDITIONS FOR OBLIGATION TO COMPENSATE
INJURED PARTY

1.The action inflicted was wrong and negligent.

2.The action was the real cause of the injury
3.The act was voluntarily inflicted.
PROCEDURAL  OR  RETRIBUTIVE JUSTICE

• Issues of procedural justice concern the fairness of how

information is gathered or how a decision is made (fairness in
the imposition of punishment and penalties); also known as
Retributive Justice.
• The punishment should be consistent and proportionate to the
wrong act. If the purpose of a punishment is to deter others
from committing the same wrong or to prevent the wrongdoer
from repeating the same wrong, then punishment should not
be greater than what is consistently necessary to achieve
these aims.
DISTRIBUTIVE  JUSTICE

• Refers to the extent to which society's institutions ensure that benefits

and burdens are distributed among society's members in ways that are
fair and just.
• When the institutions of a society distribute benefits or burdens in
unjust ways, there is a strong presumption that those institutions should
be changed.
• Issues of distributive justice concern the fairness of the distribution of
something among several people or groups.
THEORIES ON JUSTICE

1.Justice  as  Equality

2.Justice  based  on  Contribution
3.Justice  based  on  Needs  and  Abilities
4.Justice  as  Freedom
5.Justice  as  Fairness
JUSTICE AS EQUALITY: (EGALITARIANISM)

• All burdens and benefits should be distributed according to the formula:

• “Every person should be given exactly equal shares of a society’s or a
group’s benefits and burdens.”

• Critique 1: Humans are not equal in terms of abilities, values, needs,

desires, physical characteristics.
• Critique 2: Egalitarians ignore some characteristics that should be taken
into accounting in the distribution of goods: need, ability, effort.
JUSTICE BASED ON CONTRIBUTION:
(CAPITALISM)

• For Capitalist Justice: “Benefits should be distributed according to the

value of the contribution the individual makes to a society, a task, a
group, or an exchange.”

How the value of the contribution is to be measured?

1. By work effort: the harder you work, the greater the benefits accrued
to you.
2. Productivity: the greater the quantity the person contributed, the
greater the gains of the person.
JUSTICE BASED ON NEEDS AND ABILITIES:
(SOCIALISM)
• “Work burden should be distributed according to people’s abilities, and
(but) benefits should be distributed according to people’s needs.”
• Acts 2:45,11:29, “From each according to his ability, to each according
to his need.”

Bases of Socialist Principle:

1. People realize their human potential by exercising their abilities in
productive work.
2. Benefits of work should be used to promote human happiness and
well being, by distributing them to meet basic needs.
JUSTICE AS FREEDOM: (LIBERTARIANISM)

• “From each according to what he chooses to do, to each according to

what he makes for himself and what others choose to do for him and
choose to give him of what they’ve been given previously and have not
yet expanded or transferred.”
• “From each as they choose, to each as they are chosen.”

Critique:
1. Freedom from coercion at the expense of other rights and values.
2. It will generate unjust treatment for the disadvantaged.
JUSTICE AS FAIRNESS:

• The distribution of benefits and burdens in a society is just, if and

only if:
1. Each person has an equal right to the most extensive basic
liberties compatible with similar liberties;
2. Social and economic inequalities are arranged so that they are
both:
a) to the greatest benefits of the least advantaged people and
b) attached to offices and positions open to all under conditions of
FAIR and EQUALITY of opportunities.
References
• Belmonte, Charles, ed. Faith Seeking Understanding. Vol. 2.
Mandaluyong: Studium Theologicae Foundation Inc., 2006.
• Catechism of the Catholic Church. Makati: Catholic Bishops
Conference of the Philippines, 1994.
• Tax Justice Poverty. n.d. https://www.taxjustice-and-
poverty.org/de/ethics-religion/tax-justice.html.
• Velasquez, Manuel, and Claire Andre. "Santa Clara University." 1990.
https://www.scu.edu/mcae/publications/iie/v3n2/homepage.html.