The term "justice" is derived from the Latin word jus meaning right.

Justice means to accord each

To further contextualize, justice signifies fidelity to the law and perfect observance of the divine
precepts. Justice is the firm and constant will to give to each person his or her due. In the Roman
Catholic tradition, it is known as the moderation between selfishness and selflessness. Justice disposes
one to respect the rights of others and to establish harmonious human relationships that promote
equity for the common good. The just person, often mentioned in the Sacred Scriptures, is distinguished
by habitual right thinking and the uprightness of his or her conduct toward his or her neighbor
(Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1994).

In his book Christian Ethics, Peschke (1994) explains that justice is a much-invoked claim and virtue. All
humans appeal to justice and demand justice. Justice is the familiar moral virtue, sometimes in the sense
of a social norm more often with its scope so enlarged as to extend to the total observance of all the
commandments of God. Peschke lists three characteristics of justice:

a. Justice is a social norm that is a directive for guiding humans in their actions toward one another.

b. justice is approbative in the sense that judging an action to be just manifests approval of that action.

c. Justice is obligatory in the sense that judging a certain course of action to be just entails that a person
in a similar situation ought to do the same thing.

In addition to the characteristics of justice, Peschke draws on the following theories of justice:

a. Positive Law Theory – defines justice as conformity to the law and thereby reduces the just to the
legal. Justice cannot be identical with legality, since it transcends it and is its critical measure.

b. Social Good Theory — defines justice as doing what is useful for the social good. In other words,
justice obliges a person to do what promotes the social good.

c. Natural Right Theory – holds that the natural right is the ultimate basis of justice. One has rights not
primarily because he or she has received them from society but because his or her nature as a human
being confers rights upon him or her. Accordingly, the rights that are to be respected by justice are
primarily derived from the laws inherent in nature itself.

Justice is further characterized by certain properties which it owes to the fact that it demands basic
and essential requirements for the existence and development of humans and society. Accordingly,
the three properties of justice are:

a. The demands of justice in principle are enforceable.

b. The demands of justice are of definite and determinable nature at least as a rule.

c. Violated claims of justice on principle demand restitution or at least compensation if the damage
inflicted cannot be repaired.

CLASSIFICATION OF JUSTICE
1. Attributive Justice — renders to every person what is his or her rights and attributes to him or
her what he or she really is. This form of justice includes the right to one’s person, to the
property which one has acquired, to one's honor and merited reputation, and to one's 2. 2.
2. Procedural Justice — concerned with making and implementing decisions according to fair
procedures that ensure fair treatment. Rules must be neutrally followed and constantly applied
in order to produce an impartial decision. Those carrying out the procedures should be neutral.
3. Proportional Justice — renders to every person what is his or her due by right, what he or she
does not yet own but what he or she is entitled to receive as a remuneration, compensation or
benefit, or what he or she is also obliged to accept as a burden in the service of the community.
4. Social Justice – refers to the welfare of social groups it demands a proportionate share for the
social partners in the fruits of their economic cooperation. Social justice demands a
 proportionate and equitable distribution of the wealth of a nation among the different
geographical regions and various groups in the society.
5. Retributive Justice — the just imposition of punishments and penalties on those guilty of
performing wrongful acts. It demands indemnification of the injured person and active
punishment of the offender.
6. Compensatory Justice – the just way of compensating people for what they lost as a result of
wrongful actions done to them.
7. Commutative or Contractual Justice – directs that the exchange of goods and services takes
place according to strict equality of values.
8. Contributive Justice – obliges the members of the society to comply with the demands of the
common good or the general good of the community.
9. Restorative Justice – holds the offender accountable for the harm that he or she has caused and
to make reparations. qualifications.
10. Distributive Justice — is the just or equitable distribution of benefits (rights and socio-economic
goods) and burdens in the community according to proportional equality.

According to John Rawls, all social primary goods such as liberty and opportunity, income and wealth,
and the bases of self-respect are to be distributed equally, unless an equal distribution of any or all of
these goods is to the advantage of the least favored. The allocation takes account of total amount of
goods to be distributed, distribution process, and the resulting pattern of the distribution.

For Rawls, the job of distributive justice is to limit the influence of luck so that the goods might be
distributed fairly and to everyone's advantage. Others believe that the distributive process must be fair
in order for people to feel that they have received a fair outcome. In some cases, the thing to be
distributed is not a benefit, but a burden (e.g., allocation of punishments).

The primary subject of justice is the basic structure of society, or more exactly, the way in which major
social institutions distribute fundamental rights and duties and determine the division of advantages
from social cooperation. Thus, distributive justice matters because a sense of injustice arises when
individuals come to believe that their outcome is not in balance with the outcome received by people
like them in a similar situation. Societies in which resources are distributed unfairly can become quite
prone to social unrest. Redistribution of benefits can sometimes help relieve tensions and allow for a
more stable society.

Perhaps Rawls' greatest contributions to philosophy are his concepts of justice as fairness, which is a key
to understanding the principles of liberty and equality. In his work A Theory of Justice, Rawls' concept of
justice as fairness describes a set of principles and structures in a society that promotes fairness. Rawls
constructs justice as fairness around specific interpretations of the ideas that citizens are free and equal
and that society should be fair.

According to Rawls, justice as fairness consists of two main principles: liberty and equality. The liberty
principle suggests that everyone has a claim to basic liberties and rights. Each person in a society has an
equal right to the maximum liberty compatible with the same number of liberties as with everyone else.
On the other hand, the equality principle suggests that human beings are equal and that they ought to
be treated equally.

Rawls's second principle of justice (equality) has two parts: fair equality of opportunity and the
difference principle. Fair equality of opportunity requires that citizens with the same talents and
willingness to use them have the same educational and economic opportunities regardless of whether
they were born rich or poor. The difference principle, on the other hand, regulates the distribution of
wealth and income. Allowing inequalities of wealth and income can lead to a larger social product:
higher wages can cover the costs of training and education, for example, and can provide incentives to
fill jobs that are more in demand. The difference principle allows inequalities of wealth and income, so
long as these will be to everyone’s advantage, and specifically to the advantage of those who will be
worse off.