The ‘Justice’ That Overrules the Rules of Justice

Abstract

Justice is intrinsically distributive; it distributes by its rules. `Distributive' or `social' justice redistributes by overruling them. It has theories that do not start `from here'. It has no rules; it makes claims instead. Both its names are fraudulent aliases, `social' perhaps less blatantly so. Satisfaction of a claim in `social' justice depends on politics and tends to favour the poorer half of society. This commands general sympathy, but sympathy does not make it any less unjust.