Justice

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Justice
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Lady Justice

• Themis Greek goddess
• Themis did not wear a blindfold
• Carries scales and often a sword
• Is believed the blindfold was added by a 16th
  century German artist in irony
• May be Roman goddess Justicia who once settled a
  dispute among gods while blindfolded

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Lady Justice

• The Arkansas Judiciary home page containsthe
  following quotation
• "Justice is justly represented blind,because she
  sees no difference in theparties concerned. She
  has but one scale andweight, for rich and poor,
  great and small.Her sentence is not guided by
  the person,but the cause.... Impartiality is the
  lifeof justice, as that is of government."
• -- William Penn

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Justice-Definitions

• Fairness or the quality of being just
• Equity or the principle of moral rightness
• The upholding of what is just, especially fair
  treatment and due reward in accordance with
  honor, standards, or law

Justice Fairness
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Expressions of Justice

• Retributive Justice
• Compensatory Justice
• Distributive Justice

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Interpreting Justice

• Justice is comparative
• there is no absolute justice
• justice is relative to the persons, resources,
  and situation at hand
• Justice often, but not always, entails equal
  treatment
• may require equal, or unequal, treatment

Insured drivers vs. people standing in a line
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First Rule of Fairness

• Treat equally those persons who are equals and
  treat unequally those persons who are unequals.

Tells us what it means to act justly
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Second Rule of Sameness

• Persons are equals, unless there is some
  inequality or difference between them that is
  morally relevant to the situation at hand.

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Retributive Justice

• Fair punishment practices
• Examples
• State Legislator Capital punishment
• Court system sentences for convicted criminals
• Teachers punishment for late work, cheating
• Guided by laws and formalized interpretations
• It is fair and necessary to punish people for
  their wrong or unsatisfactory behavior

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Compensatory Justice

• Fair reward practices
• Equitable reward of individuals or groups for
  their achievements
• Benefiting individuals or groups because of
  disadvantages
• Determined by legal limits, social
  interpretation, or other moral values

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Compensatory Justice

• Senate Pay Raises
• House voted 276-147 to receive a cost-of-living
  pay raise exceeding 4,600
• There was almost no discussion of the increase
• Most House members and Senators have earned
  136,700 annually
• Affirmative Action

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Distributive Justice

• Fair allocation practices
• how the benefits and burdens of a society are
  passed out
• Examples
• Who gets medical resources?
• Who pays the most federal income tax?
• Who gets more of teachers time?
• Resources money, goods, and services
• Fair distribution is important due to limited
  resources

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Tax Refund

• Sen. Tom Dachle, D-S.D. said the tax cuts
  proposed for the rich would enable them to buy a
  Lexus, while the tax cuts for the poor would
  enable them to buy a muffler for a used car
• Richest 1 tax cuts average 46,000
• Poorest 20 tax cuts of 24

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Tax Refund

• In 1998
• Top 1 (gt250,000) paid 33 of the taxes
• Top 5 (gt108,000) paid 52 of the taxes
• Top 10 (gt79,000) paid 63 of the taxes
• Top 25 (gt48,000) paid 82 of the taxes
• Social Security
• Rich are taxed hundreds of thousands of dollars
  more in present value than they will ever receive
  in benefits
• Do the Rich receive more in government services
  than others? Of course not. They get the same
  bloated out-of-control federal government as the
  rest of us.
• -Alexander Tabarrok

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Conflicts Involving Justice

• Is a difference morally significant
• Acting justly may interfere with other values
• Justice should be based on moral values as well
  as similar circumstances

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Justice do it!