Today’s Concept is Justice

Justice is quite commonly used across the world, more so, in the developing countries where a number of people are denied justice. It is also a respectable word. There are quite a few maxims on justice. For instance, ‘justice delayed is justice denied’; ‘injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere’; ‘man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary’; ‘if you want peace, you must work for justice’; ‘justice without strength is helpless, strength without justice is tyrannical’. There are many more. From these quotations it is clear that justice is a powerful concept, lack of which can cause anarchy, violence and devastation.
So what is justice? It is commonly defined as a concept based on fairness, ethics and law. It is also a moral concept based on spiritual scriptures and civilisational practice. In simple words, justice is an individual habit or an institutional practice that makes the actor capable of doing what is right (just) and being right in action as well as intention. A person living in a society is attached to another person in one way or the other. This relationship involves some rights as well duties. When a person enjoying the rights also fulfils their duties and behave in an appropriate manner with others, they are said to be doing justice.
Justice can be understood in accordance with sectors of society and dimensions of life. In ethical terms, justice is being fair; in fact, it is often used interchangeably with the word fairness. In institutional terms, justice is the first virtue of any institution like truth is of systems of thought. In social terms, justice is a perpetual and constant endeavour to render to each his right. In legal terms, justice is an action in accordance with the requirements of law. An illegal action will certainly lead to injustice.
Justice could be seen as a mediating principle in an unequal society. Communists would argue that a society should be based on absolute equality which means people having the similar food, attire, housing, salary, entertainment and so on. That is neither possible nor desirable as it will rob creativity and competition, both necessary for growth and development. At the same time, absolute inequality is also not acceptable. Let’s cite an example. If a person has more than one car or has luxury cars and his neighbour has no car, that is gross inequality. This is where justice intervenes to reduce the gap of inequality. Justice demands that a person may have more than one car or cars of top brand, his neighbour should have a simple low-cost car. Both of them then are driving cars.
Justice is associated with several other concepts and objectives a society follows. They are human welfare, ethics, fulfilment of reasonable interest, performance of duties, providing everyone their reasonable share. The famous saying reflects this, “from each according to their capacity and to each according to their need”. Justice is also related to values adhered to by a society. Such values include truth, universality, equality, liberty, impartiality, dignity, respect for rights and fulfilment of basic needs.
Political philosophers have defined justice in various ways. Plato’s Republic begins with the question ‘What is Justice’? He refuted the idea that justice belongs to those who have power. He defined justice as “having and doing of what is one’s own. Since then Plato’s question has stayed at the heart of all moral, political and legal philosophy and is considered to be the foremost question in political thought. Aristotle treated justice as the core of political philosophy and its execution as a major purpose in any politics. He made a distinction between distributive and commutative justice. The first dealt with distribution of goods among a class and second with the treatment of individual in a particular transaction. In the first case, Aristotle talks of treating equals equally and famously said treating unequals equally is injustice. For instance, if one has to distribute a cake among five starving people, although each of them deserves the whole cake, it may be unjust not to divide it.
The distinction made by Aristotle survives even today in various forms. But there are not really two concepts of justice, rather than two applications of a single idea. Contemporary use of the term social justice makes extensive use of the distributive conception while in regulating actions between people the commutative conception is used. The problem arises when the two concepts enter into a conflict. For instance, Robin Hood acts unjustly to deliver distributive justice. It is unjust because he has no right to rob people. Is this conflict real or it could be resolved. Scholars are divided over their answer to this question. Some take distribution as their model of justice, influential recent theory on this is that of John Rawls. He tries to resolve it by suggesting that Robin Hoods have to be ‘sovereign’ and redistribute in the name of the ‘state’. Those who respect individual rights as the central idea in justice such as Robert Nozick seek to resolve this conflict by regarding distribution of goods unequal and therefore unjust. So they end up reconfirming the rights of individuals. Liberals do that.
Following the above bifurcation of justice, the concept has been seen in different types – distributive justice, retributive justice, restorative (compensatory) justice and procedural justice. Distributive justice refers to the extent to which society’s institutions ensure that benefits and burdens are distributed amongst society’s members that are fair and just. Some possible criteria for distribution are equity, equality and need. 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. Retributive justice applies the same principle to the offender, punishing the person in proportion to the crime one has committed. Punishment has to be fair and just. Those who do not play by the rules, should be brought to justice and deserve to suffer penalties for their transgressions.
The type depends on the context and time. What was justice in the past, may not be justice in the present day. Similarly, what is justice in a particular place or country may not be the same in another place or country. Distributive justice relates to people in a society so it is also called social justice. Retributive and restorative are rights-based. It is defined and administered on the nature of rights. So if you are dealing with natural rights of human beings, it is called natural justice. Likewise, if it is economy, environment, social and cultural right, the justice will be accordingly named, such as economic justice, environmental justice and so on.
Retributive and restorative justice are the most visible forms of justice delivered in the society. The main agencies to do so are the state and its principal organs – legislative, executive and judiciary. The legislature makes the laws, the executive implements them and judiciary adjudicates if laws were implemented justly. However, legal justice consisting of retribution or punishment and compensation is the predominant type of justice that is demanded. Legal justice pre-supposes the following conditions – just laws, equality before law, uniform legal system, impartial and independent judiciary, inexpensive and efficient justice, democratic organisation of legislative bodies.
Legal justice goes with political dimensions of justice, mainly a democratic form of polity. Ideally, for justice to prevail, no one should be denied political rights and be provided with equal political rights. Certain conditions are necessary to ensure political justice. They are universal adult franchise, right to contest elections, right to dissent, right to criticise the government, right to form political parties, right to protest, right to petition, respect for human rights, protection of the weak and the marginalised, political authority should be based on the consent of the people, special provisions for the oppressed and the deprived, representative character of the political institutions.
The social justice relates to social dimensions in a polity. It is more than distributive justice. Social justice essentially means giving opportunities to every citizen in every sphere of life to develop their personality and promote their well-being. The conditions necessary for ensuring social justice include absence of special rights, prohibition of discrimination, to end any system based on birth, just distribution of resources, social security, a just-balance between individual freedom and social responsibility, protection of minorities and abolition of unequal social values. The concept of social justice is based on the belief that all human beings are equal and that no discrimination should be made on the grounds of race, religion, caste, sex or place of birth. Three social strategies may be necessary to ensure social justice – equal social opportunities, special attention to weaker sections and abolition of social evils.
The economic justice emphasised by the Left in ideological spectrum, namely the Socialists consist of certain basic principles. One is to provide equal opportunities to everyone to earn their livelihood. It also means to help such people were not able to work and earn their livelihood, to provide social security. The basic needs of everyone such as food, cloth and shelter, in Indian vocabulary, roti, kapra aur makan should be provided to all. It also means providing adequate means of livelihood to all by provisions of decent working conditions, equal pay for equal work, fair distribution of resources etc.
Conditions necessary for ensuring economic justice are right to work for everyone, meeting the basic needs, reducing wide economic disparities, protection of the interests of workers, just distribution of wealth, ending economic exploitation, special protection of the interest of weaker sections, disabled and old, and the marginalised and the limited right to property.
In procedural justice, the difference between the just and unjust is found in the nature of the action, or in the manner of its execution. Study of the law has often led to the opinion that laws themselves are neither just nor unjust, but that the process of their application may be one or the other.
From the above, it is clear that the objectivity of the concept of justice is paramount. In any case, there are two basic elements that define justice – ethical and legal. Any political system that overrides the sense of justice renders itself precarious. It is so because, that sense is at the root of sentiments of the people that lend allegiance to the regime. Also, there is genuine conception of political obligation that requires justice to be preserved.
The provisions on justice in the Indian Constitution include the Preamble which states, “to secure to all its citizens justice, social, economic and political. Fundamental rights Article 23 refers to prohibition of traffic in human beings and forced labour, Article 24 prohibition of employment of children in factories etc., it says, “no child below the age of 14 years, shall be employed to work in any factory or mine or engaged in any other hazardous employment”.
In Directive Principles of State Policy, Article 38 puts the responsibility on the ‘state’ to secure a social order for the promotion of welfare of the people. It states, “the state shall strive to promote the welfare of the people by securing and protecting as effectively as it may a social order in which justice …. shall inform all the institutions of the national life”. Article 39 talks of equality, community ownership, equality in wages, decent working conditions etc. 39A refers to equal justice and free legal aid. It states that, “the state shall secure that the operation of the legal system promotes justice ….to any citizen by reason of economic or other disabilities and Article 46 talks about promotion of educational and economic interests of scheduled castes/scheduled tribes and other weaker sections.

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