What is (true) Justice?

Aristotle distinguished natural justice from "artificial" or "conventional" justice, that is, the type of justice or laws created by groups of individuals, typically nations. However, obviously different nations often create different laws and those of a dictatorship are typically are very different from those of a democracy. Sophocle's drama Antigone is a paradigmatic example of a heroine following natural law rather than the conventional law established by King Creon.

In America, for instance, justice might be thought to have three meanings:

• Justice is the ethical , philosophical idea that people are to be treated impartially, fairly, properly, and reasonably by the law and by arbiters of the law, that laws are to ensure that no harm befalls another, and that, where harm is alleged, a remedial action is taken - both the accuser and the accused receive a morally right consequence merited by their actions (see: due process ).

• Justice is a legal structure or system that is designed to judge in a general sense who should be accorded a benefit or burden when the law is applied to a person’s factual circumstances.

• Justice is a title conferred upon a judge of the U.S. Supreme Court , the federal courts of appeal , or the state courts of appeal.

  -- From Cornell Law School (law.cornell.edu) 2023.

Here we encourage discussion of the precise philosophical nature of justice. For example, one might argue that "laws are to ensure that no harm befalls another" needs the qualification "unless for self-defense or the like." Most, if not all, reasonable people would want to be able to use force against illegitimate, initiated force. Also, notice that the Cornell Law School text seems to ignore natural law. Would they insist that Antigone should have followed Creon's dictates? What happens when two nations' laws are in conflict? How do we resolve that issue in this day and age especially, in the so-called "global village" (although this might best be addressed in the pages on International issues)?

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