Justice and its significance Flashcards
What is justice generally
Justice can be considered an elusive concept to define although it generally encompassed values of justness fairness and what is right,
Lord wright definition
Lord wright defined justice as the guiding principle of a judge is to do justice, that is justice according to the law but still justice.
Impact of justice
The impact of justice is it can provide compensatory damages for injured parties in response to a breach and to prevent such actions under a contract.
Contract law example
Justice can be seen in contract law where exclusion clauses can be made to protect businesses or consumers from damage however there are statutory rules under UCTA 1977 which ensures unfair exclusion clauses are not valid terms to a contract, ensuring contracts are just.
Issue of subjectivity
The main issue with justice comes with its great subjectivity, of what someone deems to be just and fair, another may have the opposite viewpoint,
Contract e.g. of subjectivity of justice
E.g. within misrepresentation a party is entitled to damages where they have been induced by an innocent misrepresentation
This could be viewed as unjust as a party if forced to pay damages when they did nothing wrong, for giving a false statement which they provided reasonable grounds to believe the truth in
However of contract e.g.
However it could also be seen as unjust to force a party to complete Contract which they only entered due to the false statement
Utilitarianism
Two alternate viewpoints for justice are Jeremy Bentham, and the ideology of utilitarianism, which views an act to be just if it increases the total human happiness.
Capitalism
An alternate view point, from Karl Marx who views all laws of capitalism as unjust, relating mainly to the system where a certain group withholds a significant portion of the wealth and goods in society
Overall
Overall justice is a highly complex idea which relies heavily on subjective viewpoints, however a clear positive is the law is decided through elected officials within the legislation, with legal professionals able to mold and influence the law through precedent and the practice statement 1966
