OutlineJustice can be defined as an ideal or a legitimized distribution of valued goods, symbolic or material. Our main concern are then the principles and rules governing the distribution of justice.
The vertical axis runs from rules to equality. This is a permanent tension in most moral philosophers as well as in the practice of justice. The emphasis on equality is a belief in - or search for - a moral standard sanctioned by either God or nature. Rules, on the other side, stress the need for shared procedures and terms of discourse. The horizontal axis refers to the original source of justice, contrasting a fixed - whether transcendent or positive - law with the emphasis on individual rights.
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