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A central assumption of the U.S. Constitution is the promotion and protection of a just society. Justice here refers to the assumptions, norms, and laws that permit liberty and equality to thrive, even under the stress of a diverse society with competing needs. Indeed, U.S. society seeks to protect both individuals and institutions against unfair domination, be it intellectual, racial, cultural, economic, or political, and it is the task of justice to do so. To that end, civil justice is the system by which a society distributes its resources while maintaining the fundamental ideals on which the country is founded. This is easier to define than to execute, given the tension between individual liberty and collective equality, particularly when it is acknowledged that liberty includes liberty to acquire and that equality as humans does not mean equal quality of life, at least not in a capitalist society such as in the United States.

Philosophers and political theorists have asserted the centrality of just institutions since Plato (in the European tradition). However, the notion that civil justice denotes the extent to which social institutions attack or promote individual well-being is relatively recent, most notably articulated by Rawls in his books Theory of Justice and Justice as Fairness. Rawls insists that justice is what is demanded by any reasonable person in the so-called original position--that is, without knowledge of individual attributes and advantage. According to this theory, justice supports the least intrusive demands on any individual and would never support the abdication of individual rights for the collective good. Consequently, the distribution of wealth and other entitlements must be such that no individual is abandoned by society for expediency and that no individual is obliged to conform to moral or other values save those that prohibit harm to others (the realm of criminal justice).

It is the task of civil justice to determine when acquisition unacceptably harms others, what the minimum possessions and possibilities needed by each member of society are, and how access and acquisition are determined and protected. As a nation Americans are only partially comfortable with this role of justice. They may agree that it is better to be rich than poor, but ubiquitous debate about government reach and tax levy demonstrate that Americans are skeptical about giving the U.S. government the authority to redistribute wealth. On the other hand, and after more than a century of effort, as a society Americans agree that the government--indeed the justice system--does have authority to assure that people of all races and both genders have equal access to education, jobs, loans, and other resources.

Practically, then, civil justice requires assessment of the means of distribution within society. The primary resources to be distributed are wealth, of course, but also education, credit, power, the right to vote, mobility, and status. The task of policymakers who guide collective activity is to determine what goods and rights are central to just distribution; and when distribution must be protected, when it must be promoted, and when it must be left to market or other forces. The task for individuals is similarly complex: When is it acceptable to pursue one's own interest, when must one defer to a standard that does not prioritize self-interest, and when may one claim ignorance or passivity legitimately?

U.S. society maintains numerous institutions and systems of social justice. The income tax distributes wealth; publicly funded education provides for children under the age of 18 as a means of setting a baseline of opportunity; everyone over the age of 18 may vote as a means of distributing political will. Despite criticism of all of these systems as inadequate or worse, at least in principle they each seek to distribute fundamental resources among citizens.

References:

1) Dworkin, Ronald. 1985. A Matter of Principle. New York: Oxford University Press.

2) Garland, David. 1994. A Punishment Reader. New York: Oxford University Press.

3) Nozick, Robert. 1974. Anarchy, State and Utopia. New York: Basic Books.

4) Rawls, John. 2005. A Theory of Justice. New ed. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.

5) Sen, Amartya. 2001. Development as Freedom. New York: Oxford University Press.

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