justice
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Justice
The proper administration of the law; the fair and equitable treatment of all individuals under the law. A title given to certain judges, such as federal and state supreme court judges.
justice
n. 1) fairness. 2) moral rightness. 3) a scheme or system of law in which every person receives his/her/its due from the system, including all rights, both natural and legal. One problem is that attorneys, judges, and legislatures often get caught up more in procedure than in achieving justice for all. Example: the adage "justice delayed is justice denied," applies to the burdensome procedures, lack of sufficient courts, clogging the system with meritless cases, and the use of the courts to settle matters which could be resolved by negotiation. The imbalance between court privileges obtained by attorneys for the wealthy and for the person of modest means, the use of delay and "blizzards" of unnecessary paper by large law firms, and judges who fail to cut through the underbrush of procedure all erode justice. 4) an appellate judge, the Chief Justice and Associate Justices of the U. S. Supreme Court, a member of a Federal Court of Appeal, and judges of any of the various state appellate courts.
justice
see NATURAL JUSTICE.JUSTICE. The constant and perpetual disposition to render every man his due.
Just. Inst. B. 1, tit. 1. Toullier defines it to be the conformity of our
actions and our will to the law. Dr. Civ. Fr. tit. prel. n. 5. In the most
extensive sense of the word, it differs little from virtue, for it includes
within itself the whole circle of virtues. Yet the common distinction
between them is that that which considered positively and in itself, is
called virtue, when considered relatively and with respect to others, has
the name of justice. But justice being in itself a part of virtue, is
confined to things simply good or evil, and consists in a man's taking such
a proportion of them as he ought.
2. Justice is either distributive or commutative. Distributive justice
is that virtue whose object is to distribute rewards and punishments to each
one according to his merits, observing a just proportion by comparing one
person or fact with another, so that neither equal persons have unequal
things, nor unequal persons things equal. Tr. of Eq. 3, and Toullier's
learned note, Dr. Civ. Fr. tit. prel. n. 7, note.
3. Commutative justice is that virtue whose object it is to render to
every one what belongs to him, as nearly as may be, or that which governs
contracts. To render commutative justice, the judge must make an equality
between the parties, that no one may be a gainer by another's loss. Tr. Eq.
3.
4. Toullier exposes the want of utility and exactness in this division
of distributive and commutative justice, adopted in the compendium or
abridgments of the ancient doctors, and prefers the division of internal and
external justice; the first being a conformity of our will, and the latter a
conformity of our actions to the law: their union making perfect justice.
Exterior justice is the object of jurisprudence; interior justice is the
object of morality. Dr. Civ. Fr. tit. prel. n. 6 et 7.
5. According to the Frederician code, part 1, book 1, tit. 2, s. 27,
justice consists simply in letting every one enjoy the rights which he has
acquired in virtue of the laws. And as this definition includes all the
other rules of right, there is properly but one single general rule of
right, namely, Give every one his own. See, generally, Puffend. Law of
Nature and Nations, B. 1, c. 7, s. 89; Elementorum Jurisprudentiae
Universalis, lib. 1, definito, 17, 3, 1; Geo. Lib. 2, c. 11, s. 3; Ld. Bac.
Read. Stat. Uses, 306; Treatise of Equity, B. 1, c. 1, s. 1.