|
|
|
Legal justice or contributive justice, pertains to the common good and covers those aspects of determining what an individual's responsibility is to the community, be that society or the state. So the obligation to obey laws which serve the common good arises from legal justice. Or the obligation to contribute one's fair share of time, talent and/or money to the common good is due to legal justice.
Distributive justice is the opposite of legal justice. It addresses the relationship of the community's responsibility to the individual. How are we to apportion the benefits and the burdens that exist in the community? Distributive justice is the aspect of the virtue which rules these decisions. Various approaches to distribution exist, but generally speaking, CST gives prominence to the category of need as the first for assessing fair distribution and one's ability or resources when assessing burdens. So only after the basic needs of all are taken care of should other factors be permitted to influence distribution of goods, and with regard to burdens those who have more are expected to bear more.
Commutative justice governs the relationships of individuals to one another. We should remember, however, that a modern corporation is frequently understood as a moral person. Thus, the relationship of an employee to a business may be directed by norms of commutative justice. So fair dealing between employer and employee, between consumer and vendor, between borrower and lender is the sort of relationship which fall under the rubric of commutative justice.
Social justice is necessary if we are to have communities where commutative, distributive and legal justice flourish.
|
