7 May 2023

ID: 6333358
Mattias Salirrosas
Making the Acquaintance of Law
Paper: Private Law
Number of words: 1445
(excluding subsections)

Content

Your papers structure is all right. It gives the reader a good idea of what the
paper will be about. Yet, the introduction would have gained more clarity if you
had mentioned the topic of the news item.
Rawls and Nozick are sufficiently well explained. However, judge Judy is
not a comedy show but a show about real-life legal disputes.
Peru's educational system is a well-chosen example to illustrate Rawls'
and Nozick's theories with. You apply Rawls' theory particularly well. In the
application of Nozick's view it is not clear whose point of view is discussed: the
parents or the students? That makes a difference, because most likely parents
are taxed, not the students.

Formal requirements

The English in this paper is considerably better than the English in your previous
paper. Well done! Some mistakes and unclear expressions remain, but they are
few. See the highlights in yellow and grey.
You give indications of video minutes in footnotes but not to Milton
Friedman. Moreover, in your bibliography sometimes important information is
missing. See the comments below.
 PHYLOSOPHY LAW PAPER
The philosophy of justice

THE PHILOSOPHY OF JUSTICE

1 Introduction

One of the pillars for the flourishing of society is justice. Members of any kind of
human group will always ask for justice and equality. Because of this necessity,
experts in the field of philosophy are always working on theories to define and
apply justice in the fairest way. According to Sandel there are three views for
distributing wealth in a fair way: Libertarianism, Egalitarianism and meritocratic
(Harvard University, 2009b). Each of these theories has the objective of
distributing (or not distributing) wealth in the fairest way. The objective of this
work will be to analyze the Libertarian and Egalitarian views and provide
evidence of how these two theories are beneficial for the development of society.
The paper will be focus on John Rawls for the theory of Egalitarianism and
Robert Nozick for Libertarianism (Milton Friedman will also be mentioned in the
Libertarianism section). To demonstrate how these theories can improve society,
one Peruvian news article was selected.

2 John Rawls

2.1 How John Rawls views contribute to justice?

John Rawls was a philosopher from the United States of America. Rawls
believed that the only way to ensure that no one would have more power than
anyone else (a fair distribution) is through a hypothetical situation that he named
the "veil of ignorance."1 This situation consists of individuals not knowing their
sex, race, cognitive skills, strength, etc. The objective of this idea is to offer
equal opportunities for people to prosper. If there are any social or economic
differences, Rawls argued that people should help those who were unlucky.2

Sandel uses the example of Sandra Day O'Connor, who is a Supreme Court
Justice earning $200,000, and Judge Judy, who is part of a TV program and earns
$25 million. Rawls argues that it is not fair for Judge Judy to generate more
income because it depends on arbitrary factors, such as society giving more
importance to comedy than the Supreme Court. It is also unfair for O'Connor to
earn less simply because she was born with talents that society does not reward.3

1
John Rawls (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). (2021, April 12).
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rawls/
2
Ethics Unwrapped. (2023, February 17). Veil of Ignorance - Ethics Unwrapped.
https://ethicsunwrapped.utexas.edu/glossary/veil-of-ignorance
3
The example comes from minute 30:50 of: Harvard University. (2009b, September 9). Justice:
What’s The Right Thing To Do? Episode 08: “WHATS A FAIR START?” [Video]. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcL66zx_6No
2.2 John Rawls view on recent news articles

The Peruvian educational system is not the fairest one. The transition from
school to superior education is full of external factors that the theory of
Egalitarianism would consider unfair. The objective of this section will be to
connect the Egalitarianism theory and the Peruvian transition from school to
university.

2.2.1 Context of the Peruvian University Admission

There are two types of universities in Peru: public and private universities. To
understand both, we must first mention the most important educational public
entity in the country, SUNEDU (Superintendence of Higher Education in Peru).
In short, the objective of SUNEDU is to administer the public budget allocated to
education, protect the rights of students, and manage national professional titles.
With this stated, the only difference between public and private universities is
that SUNEDU does not supervise the budget for private universities because they
don’t receive funds from the state.4

There are many reasons why students want to study in a public university, but
one of the main reasons is the tuition fees. The tuition fees for a public university
start from 0 soles (university is free excluding registration fees), while in an
accredited private university like "Universidad de Lima," the costs can amount to
18,000 soles per year. Considering that the minimum salary is 960 soles per
month, most students' only alternative for receiving education is to face the
extremely difficult admission exams. Approximately twenty-five thousand
students compete for two thousand vacancies at UNMSM (San Marcos public
university).5 Due to this difference, the public admission exams are extremely
challenging. The traditional way of gaining admission to top public universities
4
SUNEDU. (2016, August 16). Universidades Públicas.
https://www.sunedu.gob.pe/universidades-publicas/
5
Ec, R. (2019, September 14). San Marcos: más de 24 mil postulantes rendirán examen este fin
de semana. El Comercio Perú. https://elcomercio.pe/lima/unmsm-san-marcos-24-mil-postulantes-
rendiran-examen-semana-noticia-nndc-675810-noticia/?ref=ecr
is through enrollment in preparatory academies immediately after students finish
high school. But is this fair according to Rawls?

2.2.2 How is the free entrance to a Peruvian university related with the theory of
Egalitarianism?

La República Journal informed that the government has approved the project for
free access to public higher education (Ortega & Ortega, 2023). 6 What does this
mean? As mentioned in the previous section, the traditional way to pass the
entrance exam for a national university was through extra preparation after the
student finished high school. The "Academias Universitarias" are private
institutions that prepare students specifically for a certain type of admission
exam (depending on which university the student wants to apply to). The
problem with this method is that the academies are private institutions, meaning
they have a cost that some students can't afford. The cost for a 5-month
preparation is 2450 soles, which is a monthly investment of 490 (more than half
the minimum salary).7

If one of the missions of Peruvian public universities is to offer education to

every Peruvian student, aren't the students who can afford private preparation
taking advantage of the poverty of others? Rawls' theory would criticize the
unfair disadvantage that students with private preparation have over those who
can't afford it because they are relying on external factors. Universities would be
selecting people based on their economic income rather than conducting a fair
selection process. The project for free education consists of accepting students to
public universities based solely on their high school grades. A selection
procedure would determine if the student came from a low-income family. As a

6
Recent news article selected: Ortega, A., & Ortega, A. (2023, March 1). ¿Hay ingreso libre a
universidades en Perú este 2023?: las 7 claves para entender el proyecto de ley. La República.pe.
https://larepublica.pe/sociedad/2022/06/30/ingreso-libre-a-universidades-en-peru-2022-claves-
para-entender-el-proyecto-de-ley-sobre-el-acceso-libre-a-la-educacion-superior-pedro-castillo
7
Claros, F., & Claros, F. (2022, November 5). UNI: ¿cuánto cuesta el ciclo de Cepre que tiene la
modalidad de ingreso directo? La República.pe.
https://larepublica.pe/datos-lr/respuestas/2022/10/25/cuanto-cuesta-estudiar-en-la-cepre-uni-
universidad-nacional-de-ingenieria-examen-de-admision-a-la-uni-evat
result, the selection process would be fairer because students would not depend
on external factors such as money.

3 Robert Nozick

3.1 How Robert Nozick views contribute to justice?

Robert Nozick is a libertarian North American philosopher. According to Sandel

(Harvard University, 2009a), the libertarian theory asserts that the government
does three things that are illegitimate and can be considered forms of coercion:
passing laws to obligate people to protect themselves (laws that obligates people
to wear a seatbelt), imposing morality on legislation (laws that control sexual
interactions between gays and lesbians) and implementing taxation to redistribute
wealth. The principle of libertarian acquisition differs from Rawls' theory. 8 The
libertarian theory states that if people acquire their wealth through their own
means, it is fair. According to Nozick, taxing the wealthy to pay for housing,
healthcare, and education is a form of coercion for two reasons: First, people are
not given the freedom to choose how to invest their money, and second, in
libertarian ideology, redistribution without consent is considered a form of
coercion.9

3.2 Robert Nozick theory on the Peruvian direct education project

The Peruvian journal RPP (2021) analyzed the educational project during its
initial phase under the government of former President Pedro Castillo. The
journal asserts that to carry out the project, an estimated 493.3 million soles
would be needed.10 This substantial amount is because, to accept students without
an admission exam, the number of students that public universities would need to
8
The examples of the three things that government does and are coercive starts at 8:10: Harvard
University. (2009a, September 9). Justice: What’s The Right Thing To Do? Episode 03: “FREE
TO CHOOSE” [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw4l1w0rkjs
9
Robert Nozick’s Political Philosophy (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). (2022, April 21).
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nozick-political/
10
Rpp, R. (2021, August 11). Ingreso libre a universidades requeriría un presupuesto adicional de
S/ 493.3 millones al año. RPP Noticias. https://rpp.pe/economia/economia/ingreso-libre-a-
universidades-requeriria-un-presupuesto-adicional-de-s-4933-millones-al-ano-noticia-1352093?
ref=rpp
accommodate would have to be doubled. This would entail each of the 51
national universities requiring investment in new infrastructure, hiring more
teachers, providing transportation subsidies for students, and so on.

3.3 Is it fair to redistribute the wealth of people without consent according to

Libertarianism?

According to Robert Nozick, it is considered a form of coercion when the

government takes wealth from individuals to redistribute it. An example related
to this news article would be the case of individuals who do not benefit from the
project for two general reasons: they attend a private university, or they planned
to enter a public university but were not included in the project or did not pass
the admission exam. According to the libertarian theory, individuals attending
private universities are being coerced because the state is taxing them (obligating
them to pay) for things that they will not use. Milton Friedman, a libertarian
economist, believes that people should have the power to decide where their
money goes. For example, when the state asks people to contribute money for
their retirement, Friedman argues that individuals should be able to decide
whether to take the risk of not paying for the benefit.

4 Conclusion

4.1 How are the Libertarian and Egalitarian theories contributing to justice?

To conclude, it is essential to state that there is no right or wrong theory for this
case. The news article selected for the paper was, by nature, supported by
egalitarianism. However, by examining the free education project through a
libertarian philosophy, it becomes evident that even if it is implemented for a
good reason such as improving education, there will always be a segment of
society that will not be satisfied with the government's decisions.

4.2 Who has the reason? (Personal opinion)

Personally, I support the egalitarian point of view. People are often benefited by
external factors such as the wealth of their parents. The only reason why students
can afford private education is because of the work of their parents. Since this is
something that individuals cannot control, I am in favor of redistributing a
percentage of the wealth to provide opportunities for people to flourish. This
does not mean that the libertarian theory is wrong. It is important to protect
wealth and provide a "free market" for citizens. However, sometimes it is good to
sacrifice some of the "liberty" to live in a fair society because, after all, people
pay taxes because, in most cases, they agree to live in society.

Bibliography:

Claros, F., & Claros, F. (2022, November 5). UNI: ¿cuánto cuesta el ciclo de
Cepre que tiene la modalidad de ingreso directo? La República.pe.
https://larepublica.pe/datos-lr/respuestas/2022/10/25/cuanto-cuesta-
estudiar-en-la-cepre-uni-universidad-nacional-de-ingenieria-examen-de-
admision-a-la-uni-evat

Ec, R. (2019, September 14). San Marcos: más de 24 mil postulantes rendirán
examen este fin de semana. El Comercio Perú.
https://elcomercio.pe/lima/unmsm-san-marcos-24-mil-postulantes-
rendiran-examen-semana-noticia-nndc-675810-noticia/?ref=ecr

Ethics Unwrapped. (2023, February 17). Veil of Ignorance - Ethics Unwrapped.

https://ethicsunwrapped.utexas.edu/glossary/veil-of-ignorance
Examen de admisión 2023-II: San Marcos ofrece más de 5 000 vacantes y una
nueva carrera. (n.d.). Noticias | Diario Oficial El Peruano.
http://www.elperuano.pe/noticia/204122-examen-de-admision-2023-ii-
san-marcos-ofrece-mas-de-5-000-vacantes-y-una-nueva-
carrera#:~:text=En%20el%20caso%20de%20centros,(c%C3%B3digo
%209549)%20seg%C3%BAn%20corresponda.

Harvard University. (2009a, September 9). Justice: What’s The Right Thing To
Do? Episode 03: “FREE TO CHOOSE” [Video]. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw4l1w0rkjs

Harvard University. (2009b, September 9). Justice: What’s The Right Thing To
Do? Episode 08: “WHATS A FAIR START?” [Video]. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcL66zx_6No

John Rawls (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). (2021, April 12).

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rawls/

Ortega, A., & Ortega, A. (2023, March 1). ¿Hay ingreso libre a universidades en
Perú este 2023?: las 7 claves para entender el proyecto de ley. La
República.pe. https://larepublica.pe/sociedad/2022/06/30/ingreso-libre-a-
universidades-en-peru-2022-claves-para-entender-el-proyecto-de-ley-
sobre-el-acceso-libre-a-la-educacion-superior-pedro-castillo

Robert Nozick’s Political Philosophy (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).

(2022, April 21). https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nozick-political/

Rpp, R. (2021, August 11). Ingreso libre a universidades requeriría un

presupuesto adicional de S/ 493.3 millones al año. RPP Noticias.
https://rpp.pe/economia/economia/ingreso-libre-a-universidades-
requeriria-un-presupuesto-adicional-de-s-4933-millones-al-ano-noticia-
1352093?ref=rpp
SUNEDU. (2016, August 16). Universidades Públicas.
https://www.sunedu.gob.pe/universidades-publicas/