JUSTICE AND FAIRNESS: PROMOTING THE COMMON GOOD JUSTICE AND FAIRNESS

• Giving each person what they deserve, or to use more formal language, what is legally theirs, is the definition of justice.
• In contemporary speech, the terms justice and fairness are commonly used interchangeably because of their indissoluble
relationship. "Fairness" is typically considered to mean “the capacity to judge without regard to one's thoughts or interests,"
while "justice" is typically understood to mean "a standard of rightness" in most instances.
• "Fairness" has also been used to describe the capacity to make decisions that are concrete and specific to a certain situation
rather than being overly general.
•When people dispute about what they believe should be given, or when decisions need to be made about how advantages and
disadvantages should be distributed among a group of people, questions of justice and fairness are certain to arise.
• We need justice principles that everyone can agree upon as reasonable and fair standards for determining what individuals
are entitled to when situations like these arise in our society.
PRINCIPLES OF JUSTICE
•The most basic principle of justice is that "equals should be treated equally," which states that equals should be treated equally
and unequal should be treated unequally. • Individuals should be treated equally unless their differences are significant to the
context in which they are involved, according to various modern formulations of this principle.
• Additionally, there are criteria that, in our opinion, cannot be used as justifications for treating individuals differently.
For instance, the general opinion is that it is unethical to give someone preferential treatment at work based on their age,
gender, racial or ethnic heritage, or the religion they practice.
•We also think it is unfair when someone is penalized for an event over which they had no control or when they are not made
whole for harm they have suffered. These two circumstances serve as illustrations of what we deem unjust.
DIFFERENT KINDS OF JUSTICE
• To start, “distributive justice” refers to the extent to which a society's structures ensure that its members are treated fairly
and justly when it comes to sharing its benefits and burdens.
•There is a strong presumption that such institutions should be changed when the benefits or burdens of a society are
dispersed inequitably via its institutions.
•Second, when people discuss "retributive or corrective justice," they are talking to how reasonable and appropriate the
punishments are.
• In general, we believe that a penalty is just if it considers key elements, such as the seriousness of the conduct and the
criminal's purpose, while neglecting minor ones, such the offender's race.
•Third, "compensatory justice" refers to the degree to which those who have damaged individuals fairly recompense them for
their damages; just compensation is equitably proportionate to the harm that was done.
Fourth, "restorative justice" describes the method through which victims of loss are returned to their pre-injury status
•It is possible to trace the foundations of the justice notion all the way back to the concepts of social cohesiveness,
interdependence, and equality of human dignity.
➢ Social Stability – Depending on the extent to which the members of that society believe they are being treated fairly.
➢ Interdependence - Because each member of a society depends on the others, social cohesion can only be sustained to the
extent that the institutions in which each person takes part are just.
➢ Equal Dignity – Every person has the same level of dignity, and as a result of this dignity, everyone has the right to be treated
equally with others.
• Given that justice is a cornerstone of ethics, it is crucial that we give it the attention it requires in our moral lives. We must think
about whether or not our actions are just to everyone else while evaluating the morality of any decision.
• Justice is a reflection of our shared respect for one another's fundamental dignity and an admission that we must treat one
another equally if we are to coexist as a Community that is dependent on one another. This is a recognition that we must
accept our interdependence on one another if we are to coexist in a dignified manner.