Justice and Fairness

USMAN CHAUDHRY
 Justice and Fairness
Disputes among individuals in business are often interlaced
with reference to justice and fairness.
◦ Unequal distribution of rewards/benefits and burdens in the society

When matters are especially serious in nature, we tend to use the word.
“justice”

If we think that slavery is unjust, for example, then we condemn a society

that uses slavery even if slavery makes that society more productive.
Greater benefits for some cannot justify injustices for others.

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 Distributive Justice
Concerned with the fair distribution of society's benefits and
burdens.
Equals should be treated equally and unequals treated unequally.
◦ In the brown lung hearings, for example, it was pointed out that if federal law helped workers
afflicted by black lung, then it was only "fair" that it also help workers afflicted by brown lung.

Different people have conflicting claims on society's benefits and burdens

Shortage of benefits-such as jobs, food, housing, medical care, income, and wealth-as
compared with the numbers and desires of the people who want these goods.
The other side of the coin is that there may be too many burdens-unpleasant work,
substandard housing, health injuries of various sorts-and not enough people willing to
shoulder them.

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 Distributive Justice
• Justice as Equality – Egalitarian
• Justice based on Contribution – Capitalist Justice
• Justice as Freedom – Libertarianism
• Justice based on Needs and Abilities – Socialism
• Justice as Fairness

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 Distributive Justice
Justice as Equality: Egalitarianism
All benefits and burdens should be distributed according to the following
formula:
 Every person should be given exactly equal shares of a society's or a group's
benefits and burdens.
 Political equality: Equal participation in, and treatment by, the political
system.
 Economic equality: Equality of income, wealth, and opportunity.

 But, people differ in their abilities, intelligence, needs, desires and all other
mental and physical features.

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 Distributive Justice
Justice Based on Contribution: 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.
 Most widely used to establish salaries in American companies
 Puritan ethic: Every individual has a religious obligation to work hard
at his calling.
 Productivity: The amount a person produces. The greater the quantity
of a person’s contributed product, the more that person should
receive.

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 Distributive Justice
Justice as Freedom: Libertarianism
The only distribution that is just, is one that results from free individual
choices. Any distribution that results from an attempt to impose a certain
pattern on society will therefore be unjust.

Justice Based on Needs and Abilities: Socialism

Work burdens should be distributed according to people's abilities, and
benefits should be distributed according to people's needs.
 Model of a family - Able family members willingly support the family and needy family
members are willingly supported by the family.

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 Distributive Justice
Justice as Fairness: Rawls
Different considerations should be taken into account- political, economic,
minimum standards of living etc. A comprehensive theory capable of drawing
these considerations together and fitting them into a logical whole is needed.
Principle 1:
Principle of equal liberty The claim that each citizen's liberties must be protected from invasion
by others and must be equal to those of others. e.g., right to vote, freedom of speech etc.

Principle 2:
• Difference principle The claim that a productive society will incorporate inequalities, but takes
steps to improve the position of the most needy members of society.

• Principle of fair equality of opportunity The claim that everyone should be given an equal
opportunity to qualify for the more privileged positions in society's institutions.

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 Retributive Justice
Refers to the just imposition of punishments and penalties on those
who do wrong: A just penalty is one that in some sense is deserved
by the person who does wrong.
If people do not know or do not freely choose what they are doing, they
cannot justly be punished or blamed for it.
Fairness when blaming or punishing persons for doing wrong…

◦ for example, if we were to ask whether it would be fair to penalize cotton mills
for causing brown lung disease among their workers, with the assumption that
they did not their mills would cause brown lung disease.

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 Retributive Justice
Concerns the justice of blaming or punishing persons for doing wrong.
 A debated phenomena.
 The question is of the conditions under which it is just to punish a
person for doing wrong.

 Ignorance and inability

 The person being punished actually did wrong (evidence).

 Consistent and proportioned to the wrong (for all).

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 Compensatory Justice
The third category, concerns the just way of compensating people
for what they lost when they were wronged by others.

◦ A just compensation is one that in some sense is proportional to the loss

suffered by the person being compensated (such as loss of livelihood).
◦ Can all losses be restored?
◦ Reputation
◦ Mental stress etc.

Not all injuries deserve compensation.

◦ e.g., if you are pushed against someone and they fall down…!

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 Compensatory Justice
Traditional moralist have argued that a person has a moral obligation to
compensate an injured party under three conditions;

1. The action that inflicted the injury was wrong or negligent (careless driving)
2. The person’s action was the real cause of the injury (banker defrauds a
customer)
3. The person inflicted the injury voluntarily (burning someone’s property)

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 The Ethics of Care
An ethic that emphasizes caring for the concrete well being of
those near to us. An ethic that requires caring for the concrete
well being of those particular persons with whom we have
valuable close relationships, particularly those dependent on us.
◦ Malden Mills incident…. (opposite to the Utilitarian view)

An Ethics of Case emphasizes two moral demands;

1. We each exist in a web of relationships and should preserve and nurture those concrete and
valuable relationships we have with specific persons.
2. We each should exercise special care for those to whom we are concretely related by attending
to their particular needs, values, desires, and concrete well-being as seen from their own
personal perspective, and by responding positively to these needs, values, desires, and concrete
well-being, particularly of those who are vulnerable and dependent on our care.

Communitarian Ethics
 An ethic that sees concrete communities and communal relationships as
having a fundamental value that should be preserved and maintained.

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Integrating Utility, Rights, Justice, and
Caring
The Basis of Moral Judgments
Evaluation of social costs and benefits
Respect for individual rights
Just distribution of benefits and burdens
Caring for those in concrete relationships

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