Author: Haroon Khalil

Dimensions of justice means areas or sphere which is perceived as amenable to adjustment and change as a result of the concept of justice. Starting from the legal dimension, it has been based on social, political and economic demands. We will see how their meaning of justice changes with changed dimensions and what is its…

Nozick responds forcefully to the contemporary debate on justice raised by the Rawlsian welfarist–egalitarian concept of justice. He argues and advocates entitlement-based justice and rejects Rawls’s distribution criteria. Entitlement theory of justice is grounded in inviolable natural rights theory, which provides a strong basis for liberalism. It treats abilities, merits, skills and talents of individual members of society as…

Nozick and Justice as Entitlement Robert Nozick, a Harvard colleague of Rawls, wrote his famous Anarchy, State and Utopia (1974). It is said that this was in response to Rawls’s conception of distributive justice. Nozick’s arguments constitute a powerful reply from the libertarian perspective, which seeks distribution as per rights and entitlement or desert and not equality.…

Rawls’s A Theory of Justice was published at a time when American political and social milieu was covered with issues related to the Civil Rights and Black Liberation movements, Women Rights and Liberation movements, Anti–Vietnam War movements, etc. On the other hand, within the discipline of political science, behavioural and post-behavioural debate has also tilted towards relevant…

John Rawls and Justice as Distribution It has been argued that due to behavioural and positivist emphasis on value-neutral and fact-based political theory, normative content of political theory has declined. In other words, it was felt that in the mid-twentieth century, there was less emphasis on the normative principle in political theory. This could be…

Justice as End of Caste Exploitation Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar, a great political and social thinker, lawyer and constitutionalist, is famous as the man who drafted the Indian Constitution. He was the first Union Law Minister after independence. However, behind this great man lies the agony, resentment and anger of those who have been victims…

Liberty, Equality and Fraternity Ernest Barker in his book, Principles of Social and Political Theory has discussed the relationship ‘between liberty, equality and fraternity or cooperation’. He treats these values as important and states that they are ‘recognised by organized system of human relations’ though they are present in at different times and different systems in different…

Justice as end of exploitation In the eighteenth century, demand for justice on economic basis became an important thread in socialist thought in Europe. In fact, economic and social equality and justice became an important demand. The most scientific and vocal argument came from the Marxian school led by Marx and Engels. This is known…

Justice as creation of the sovereign Thomas Hobbes, Jeremy Bentham and John Austin supported the legal concept of sovereignty. They argued for the supremacy of law emanating from the sovereign and held that the law was the sole source of rights, liberties and justice. As such, law becomes an instrument of justice. Hobbes’s social contract…

Justice as the greatest net balance of satisfaction or happiness Jeremy Bentham—Happiness as Justice: Epicureans, during the Greek periods, had denied any moral and ideal content to justice that Plato advocated and were of the view that the state was not founded on something like justice of which Plato spoke. For them, justice was nothing in…