The System of Social Justice Principles in the Contemporary
Law Tradition of the West
dr. Jolanta Bieliauskaitė
Brno, 2015

1. The Outlines of Social Justice in Liberal Philosophy
•J. Hospers: “<...> no one is the ruler of other person’s life and therefore every person has the
right to act on his own choice, if that action does not interfere with the freedom of other
people.”
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•The right to property is the core of libertarian philosophical thought.
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•The phenomena of social life and institutions are assessed by the extent to which they help or
intervene the realization of that right.
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•

•R. Nozick: the majority of public resources of a free society is legitimate (reasonable) and
fairly distributed by individual interchanges.
•
•R. Nozick: “The structural principles of distributive justice imply the alienation of person's
activities and results” and thus violate the rights of contributing person.
•
•R. Nozick recognizes the necessity of the state of minimum power as the dominant defence agency or
as a night-watchman state which main function is “<...> the protection of citizens against
violence, robbery, fraud, breaking of contract and so on.”

•R. Nozick develops the theory of proprietary equitable distribution. This theory involves three
procedural principles of justice:
•the equitable initial acquisition,
•the equitable transfer and
• rectification of injustice.
•
•F. A. Hayek: the forced distribution of wealth administered by centralized state is immoral and
social justice can be a cover for totalitarian regimes.
•
•As to define common rules for the spontaneous order that characterizes Great Society, F. A. Hayek
uses concept of catallaxy - a specific type of market order, according to which members of the
society are anonymous helpers to meet each other’s needs.

•S. Arlauskas: the principle of “libertarian social justice”:
•
•“Social and economic inequality is acceptable if <...> it creates prerequisites for everyone who
has abilities to act professionally to live from his legitimate work results assessed under the
conditions of market“ .
•
•This principle implies that individuals are free to choose activities and to take care of their
and their families’ well-being.
•The main function of government is to provide legislative measures for protection of the personal
freedom to act.
•
•
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•J. Rawls:  what reasonable conceptions of justice may guide the democratic regime?
•
•The essence of J. Rawls’s conception of justice is Kantian idea that a person acts autonomously
when he adequately chooses his action principles as free and equal to others rational being.
•
•The central feature of J. Rawls’s theory of justice is hypothetic original position. Its’ main
component is the veil of ignorance: to insure impartiality of judgment, the parties are deprived
from all knowledge of their personal characteristics and social and historical circumstances.
•
•It is presumed that:
•the parties in original position are equal.
•the parties of the agreement possess rational and moral powers and their “<...> society tends to
justice and all that follows from it.”
•

•J. Rawls: rational individuals in the original position will choose two rather different
principles:
•
•the first principle requires each person to be entitled to equal scheme of underlying rights and
liberties which would match the rights and liberties of other individuals and in which equal value
was manifested through equal political freedoms;
•
•the second principle states that social and economic inequality is acceptable if:
•offices and positions are open to every individual under conditions of fair equality and
•it is beneficial for the least advantaged members of the society.

•These principles embody justice as fairness and must be applied to the regulation of the
development and operations of fundamental societal structure, forming social institutions.
•
•The first principle is the primary standard of constitutional assembly.
•
• The second principle (also known as the principle of distinction or differentiation) is
applicable to the legislative stage and represents one of the most important goals of political and
social justice.
•
•The principles are listed lexicographically which means that “<...> if one principle has the
priority over another, the latter one can not be obtained until the former is not fully realized.”
•
•

•R. Dworkin highlights the lack of a criterion which allows determining exactly to what people this
principle should be applied.
•
•R. Dworkin constructs a hypothetical situation – auction in which resources are distributed on the
basis of equality criterion and envy test.
•
•This hypothetical situation could be realized in a real society. In this case the auctioneer role
is played by the state, which distributes resources on the basis of various security systems,
without prejudice to the constitutional rights and autonomy, leaving its citizens more
possibilities to live according to their own choices, and free market establishes the prices for
goods and services.
•

•This distribution generated by a hypothetical auction may be called the standard of egalitarian
justice, since it presupposes that in the situation of the initial equality (when the society
distributes common resources) an individual has to be entitled to have that part of resources which
corresponds to his motivated choice of independent way of life.
•
•The libertarian and liberal principles are reasonable requirements which are recognized by people
as soon as they identify themselves in a specific social situation.
•

2. The Impact of the Communitarian Philosophy on the System of Principles of Social Justice
•Communitarians do not accept the liberal belief that "<...> the moral eligibility of the existing
social structures and cultural practices can be checked on the basis of universal justice and
rights".
•
•If the liberals tend to look for the universal (global) justice (whether it be J. Rawls’s
principles of justice, R. Nozick’s proprietary theory, or F. A. Hayek’s catallaxy), the
communitarians talk about local justice inherent from a particular culture, traditions and moral
system of particular community. Thus, different communities may have a different standard of
justice.

•M. Walzer: “Membership is important because of what the members of the political community owe to
one another and to no one else, or to no one else in the same degree. And the first thing they owe
is the communal provision of security and welfare“.
•
•Distributive justice in the community is multiple, based not only on the recognition of needs but
also on the recognition of membership: “Goods must be provided to needy members because of their
neediness, but they must also be provided in such a way as to sustain their membership“.
•

•M. Walzer doubts the possibility of single formula of equitable distribution.
•
•He allocates justice not only in particular society but also states that the concept of the
principle of justice depends on the particular sphere where it is applicable.
•
•There is neither common distribution scheme, nor the sole criterion by which the distribution can
be described as fair.
•
•M. Walzer believes that to search for unity is to misunderstand the subject matter of distributive
justice and favours the pluralism of justice conceptions, which is implied by multiplicity of the
society.

•Communitarian social justice principle can be formulated as follows: when the society distributes
public resources the social situation of members of society can be changed in such a way as it is
required by collective decisions made democratically and legitimately regarding public needs.
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3. The System of Principles of Social Justice
•
•A. Each person should be entitled to equal scheme of underlying rights and liberties which would
match the rights and liberties of other individuals and in which equal value was manifested through
equal political freedoms.
•
•B. Social and economic inequality is acceptable if:
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•B.1. It creates prerequisites for everyone who has abilities to act professionally to live from
his legitimate work results assessed under the conditions of market.
•B.2. Offices and positions have to be open to every individual under conditions of fair equality.
•

•B.3. In the situation of the initial equality (when the society distributes common resources) an
individual has to be entitled to have that part of resources which corresponds to his motivated
choice of independent way of life.
•B.4. It is beneficial for the least advantaged members of the society.
•
•C. When the society distributes public resources the social situation of members of society can be
changed in such a way as it is required by collective decisions made democratically and
legitimately regarding public needs.

Thank you for your attention!