What is justice
Justice is a set of essential values on which a society and the State must be based. These values are respect, fairness, equality and freedom.
In a formal sense, justice is the set of codified norms that the State, through the competent agencies, dictates, enforces and sanctions when they are disrespected, suppressing the action or inaction that generated the impact on the common good.
The word justice comes from Latin iustitia which means “fair”, and derives from the word ius.
Types of justice
There are four approaches or ways to apply justice:
Distributive justice
It is based on the equitable distribution of wealth or resources, in such a way that all citizens benefit.
It is a way of administering justice that comes from Aristotelian thought and whose application has been controversial in practice, given that there is no unanimity on the criteria that must be considered so that said distribution is beneficial for all those involved.
For some authors, it should prevail equity (that each person obtains the wealth they deserve according to their effort). In other cases, the concept of equality prevails (all people should get the same amount), while other authors believe that wealth should be distributed more in cases of greatest need.
Restorative justice
This type of justice focuses on the well-being of the victim rather than the punishment of the perpetrator. In this sense, what is sought is to repair in a material or symbolic way the damage caused.
According to this approach, victim and perpetrator must be involved in the search for justice. To do this, the perpetrator must understand and recognize the damage he has caused.
An example of restorative justice are the Victim and Offender Reconciliation Programs (Victim-Offender Reconciliation Programs), established in communities in the United States and Canada in which the parties involved meet, talk about what happened and how it affected them, and agree on how to restore the damage caused.
procedural justice
This type of justice establishes norms and rules that must be respected by all people equally, and establishes sanctions of various kinds in case citizens commit a mistake.
To exercise this type of justice it is necessary to have an impartial criterion, while to be prosecuted for it requires the representation of an expert in the matter, that is, a lawyer.
The administration of procedural justice is carried out in the courts and in the organizations created by the State for this purpose.
Retributive justice
Retributive justice establishes that each person must be treated in the same way as they treat others, therefore, when they commit a mistake they must be punished. What is expected from this type of justice is that the retroactive effect persuades other people to commit crimes.
An example of retributive justice would be human rights violations, in which although the perpetrators do not always receive punishment immediately, they are eventually punished by local justice or by international organizations.
See also:
social justice
The term “social justice” does not have a clear origin, but it is known that it began to be implemented in the 18th century in Europe to refer to the norms that had to be met in order to maintain social order.
In that sense, part of the obligations of a monarch were to establish what would be the laws or rules that allowed coexistence and their respective sanctions if they were violated.
However, the term acquired new connotations at the end of the 19th century with the emergence of the Industrial Revolution, the consequent capitalism and new economic and social dynamics. At that time, the British socialist movement would adopt the concept to propose a balanced distribution of goods within a society, which is reminiscent of the Aristotelian vision of distributive justice.
In 1919, at the end of the First World War, the World Labor Organization incorporated this notion in the first article of its constitution, stating that permanent peace is only possible if it is based on social justice.
While in 1931, the Catholic Church mentioned the term for the first time in its Social Doctrine, used by Pope Pius XI, who expressed that social justice should be applied in such a way as to reduce the gap between the wealthy and the poorest.
On the other hand, in 2007 the United Nations Organization proclaimed February 20 of each year as World Day of Social Justice.
See also:
Justice as a value
Justice as a value is the moral principle of each individual who decides to live giving everyone what belongs to them. Justice is part of social, moral and democratic values, which is where its importance derives.
Justice is a virtue that all individuals must put into practice consistently and in search of both their own good and that of society.
What is expected is that each individual respects established social norms and contributes to the maintenance of a harmonious environment. And in a situation of injustice, the ideal is for each person to act with rectitude and impartiality.
To achieve this, it is necessary that justice be a value instilled by the family, reinforced by educational institutions, respected and protected by the State and its institutions, and put into practice by society.
See also
divine justice
Divine justice is that which is applied by God, based on compliance with certain norms or doctrines. In Christianity, these rules are included in The Ten Commandments, a kind of decalogue in which the behavioral guidelines that human beings must follow to lead a harmonious coexistence are dictated.
Failure to comply with the commandments, from the Christian point of view, brings with it a divine sanction or punishment, while their compliance merits salvation and protection from God.
The maximum expression of divine justice is the Final Judgment, which refers to the event in which all human beings will be judged for the acts they have committed on Earth, and from where they will be sent to suffer eternal punishment or will be received in the heavenly kingdom, depending on their behavior.
For its part, in Hinduism, divine justice is associated with the concept of karma, a law that is executed in each human being according to their actions. It is a kind of retributive justice in which each action has a consequence, so the ideal is to seek good action according to the principles of this religious doctrine, to prevent the consequences from being negative and affecting the present or future life, represented in the concept of reincarnation.
Justice in philosophy
Throughout history, many philosophers have worked to define the concept of justice. Already in Ancient Greece, Plato said that the individual had to come out of the darkness, from the cave of ignorance, since the person becomes righteous to the same extent that he possesses knowledge.
In this sense, the individual who has greater knowledge can be more just, which translates the idea that rulers must have extensive knowledge to know how to govern and to truly do justice.
The philosopher Aristotle defined justice as giving each citizen what they deserve according to their needs and contributions in society, from which the principle of distributive justice began.
While for the enlightened philosopher Inmauel Kant, the justice of a State must ensure three fundamental principles: the freedom of individuals, the equality between them and the independence of each member of a community.
For his part, Hans Kelsen, an Austrian jurist and philosopher of great relevance in the 20th century, indicated that justice is a natural right that prevails over positive law, since if it goes against the fundamental rights of human beings it cannot be talk about justice.
See also Natural Law.
symbol of justice
Justice is represented with a figure of a woman who is blindfolded, a scale in one hand and a sword in the other.
Blindfolds highlight that justice does not look at people and is the same for everyone. The balance represents the judgment that will be determined by placing the arguments and evidence presented on each side of the balance. The sword expresses that justice will punish the guilty with a strong hand.
See also Symbol of justice.