Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

Justice – The Backbone of a Society

|

Justice – The Backbone  of a Society

Life of just man is better and happier. There is always some specific virtue in everything, which enables it to work well. If it is deprived of that virtue, it works badly. The soul has specific functions to perform. When it performs its specific functions, it has specific excellence or virtue. If, it is deprived of its peculiar virtue, it cannot possibly do its work well. It is agreed that the virtue of the soul is justice. The soul which is more virtuous or in other words just is also the happier soul. Therefore, a just man lives happy. A just soul, in other words a just man, lives well; an unjust cannot.”

There is not a single and absolute definition for justice. As a result, Plato in his philosophy gives very important place to the idea of justice. He used the Greek word “Dikaisyne” for justice which comes very near to the work “morality” or “righteousness”, it properly includes within it the whole duty of man. It also covers the whole field of the individual’s conduct in so far as it affects others. Plato contended that justice is the quality of soul, in virtue of which men set aside the irrational desire to taste every pleasure and to get a selfish satisfaction out of every object and accommodated themselves to the discharge of a single function for the general benefit.

Cephalus who was a representative of traditional morality of the ancient trading class established the traditional theory of justice. According to him “justice consists in speaking the truth and paying one’s debt”. Thus Cephalus identifies justice with right conduct. Polemarchus also holds the same view of justice but with a little alteration. According to him “justice seems to consist in giving what is proper to him”. The simple implication of this conception of justice may be that “justice is doing good to friends and harm to enemies.” This is also a traditional maxim of Greek morality.

There is an Arabic maxim saying that the government which cherishes justice, will last forever. Justice seems to be the soul of a society’s law. In another item, if a society lacks justice, the citizens will resort to protest and force so as to get rid of unjust law. Therefore, to set up social discipline and security, a government is supposed to establish law on the basis of justice.

It should be noted that justice is a relative concept, a law which is considered just in a particular time and place, may be deemed unjust in another time or place. Since justice is defined with various political and social tastes, its concept will alter from time to time and condition to condition. That is why people sometimes use the term moral or religious justice or “social justice”.

Naturally, man shows great tendency for justice. For instance, one likes to see that everyone is equal in the eye of law. Moreover, conflicts break out and blood is shed to seek justice and just law. The human history is formed with men struggling for just practices. In other words, mostly lives are sacrificed in conflicts with dictatorial regimes and cruel rulers. Whenever a ruler resorted to violence and cruelty, the public feelings and conscience got hurt and they protested strongly at the cost of their lives.

The Arab spring is the best example for gaining justice. Cruelty, discrimination and injustice went beyond the public tolerance and they finally chose to protest which made the unjust regimes crumble. This contagious flame of revolution against injustice spread to neighboring countries and yet burning strongly. It is believed that protest against cruelty and injustice will never end – due to the relative concept of justice. Justice is a moral concept and morality – which differs from one place to another – also plays a key role in establishing law in a society. Willy-nilly, the law-makers are affected with their societal morality and have to consider the public moral rules for protecting law and order. They must command the facts which are in accordance with the moral norms of the public and prevent what the citizens assume inappropriate. In current law, many rules such as the necessity of fulfilling promise, avoiding harming others and honoring contracts root in public morality which are observed by law-makers. Sometimes, honoring morality is considered obligatory by law-makers and a contract signed at the cost of its violation will not be validated. For instance, a contract signed between two companies, in our country, to trade wine will be invalidated in the eye of law. Cicero says that if statute allows theft and fornication, it will be no more than the law of thieves and villains. He further believes that the people have the rights to protest against the law which are not in accordance with natural rights. So, it is construed that people can protest against the law which is in disagreement with a society’s moral values and justice.

However, Socrates, who accepted the law despite being unjust and drank the cup of hemlock, says that citizens have to comply with the law at any cost yet he allows the citizens to make the government reform the unjust law. Hence, according to him, one has not to disobey the law for being unjust but to make the government to reform it. So, justice is the backbone of a society and governments have to establish the law based on justice and fairness.

Hujjatullah Zia is the newly emerging writer of the Daily Outlook Afghanistan. He can be reached at outlookafghanistan@gmail.com

Go Top