The Virtue of Justice

In addition to natural rights, there are those which spring from mutual consent, as in contracts; and there are rights which public authority can establish in the form of laws which we will briefly consider below.

One major problem in regard to the matter of justice is that so many people seem only concerned about the rights they have in justice, and not the obligations it imposes on them. The true Christian, knowing his innate tendency to self-seeking and wishful thinking, will try to counter these tendencies by trying to be more concerned about his obligations to others. He knows that the more he is just in dealing with others, the more God's justice will be tempered by His mercy in dealing with him.

Kinds of Justice

Justice, as we saw, has to do with two parties, each rendering the other his due. But several possible combinations can exist between two parties, which gives rise to several kinds of justice.

(1) Commutative justice - Which inclines one individual to render to another individual (or group which constitutes a moral person) what is strictly due.

(2) Legal justice - which inclines one to render what is due to society, i. e., the whole community. These obligaitons are satisfied by observing civil laws.

(3) Distributive justice - inclines society or the whole community to render what is due to individual members of that society or community.

The aim of justice is to establish some kind of equality, or just balance or proportion between the parties involved. This, as we will see, will differ in the kinds of justice.

COMMUTATIVE JUSTICE (person to person)
The purpose of commutative justice is to preserve equality of rights between individuals, e.g., between the value of an item purchased and the price paid for it, or between the wage paid by the employer and the work done by the employee, etc. A special characteristic of commutative justice is the obligation of making restitution when the rights of one has been violated. That restitution may involved the returning of something stolen (or if not possible, its value), the repair or restoration of something damaged or destroyed, compensation for an injury that has been unjustly inflicted, etc. The following are some examples of infractions against this virtue:

(1) By deeds

--Human life is man's greatest gift in the natural order. To deprive one of that gift without a just cause is truly a grave sin of injustice,

Go To Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7