THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LAW AND JUSTICE

 Introduction

After having seen the meanings and different aspects of law and justice, it would be better to assess the relationship between law and justice. Questions such as: How are law and justice connected? How do they interact? In what way are they distinct? and can law be considered as a means of serving justice? are assessed and analyzed. In answering this question and assessing the relationship between law and justice it is essential to refer to some laws and cases.

The Connection and Interaction of Law and Justice

Many people believe that there is a close connection between law and justice. The main thing that connects law and justice is the origin and foundation of law. Law is related with nature and God; and its basement is that of justice. True justice is found in nature and nature has ordered what human beings should do and not to do. And where human beings search and find this from nature and include it in their law then human law is considered as holding justice and compatible with natural order. In this respect the naturalist and positivists theory followers have their own view. That is the natural law theory followers argue that justice is the source and basement of law. Whereas the positivist theory followers argue that law is the source and basement of justice; and a rendered justice has its source from law. One way or another it can be taken that there is an unbreakable tie between law and justice in terms of origin and foundation.

It is also widely accepted that justice is the result and effective implementation of law. Keeping in mind that there are some exceptional situations where there is a variance between law and justice, it is highly believed that justice is the proper implementation of law. Many people also assure the existence of justice where the law is properly implemented and government officials and everyone is standing for the effective and proper implementation of the law. This aspect of nexus between law and justice can also be considered as another connection.

In terms of freedom and equality John Rawls stated that a system of government, i.e. its laws, should guarantee freedom for all and equality and accept material inequality only if it proves useful for the others. For a law to be considered as a just law and to say that a certain law is a means of serving justice it should primarily guarantee the freedom and equality of human beings.

The Distinction between Law and Justice

Legal and political theorists since the time of Plato have wrestled with the problem of whether justice is part of law or is simply a moral judgment about law.  There are no universal principles by which justice or injustice can be defined other than the way in which the government has made its laws. Thus, in different societies and under different authorities, justice is different. Others who don’t like laws made by governments on the other hand argue that there is some sort of universal natural law or justice. But looking into the current practical laws and situations of our world every government has its own different laws that are assumed to serve justice.  

The mere fact that a law is proclaimed or enacted as a law by a government does not mean that it is just law. And there are a number of laws that contradict with natural law and justice. For example apartheid law is a law that is against the law of nature and entitles rights based on the color of human beings. It is totally against the law of nature and justice. In addition to this there are other laws which clearly contradict with natural law. Since every law has its own political, sociological, philosophical and historical background in a given society, it will definitely benefit and harm different groups in a society and cannot uniformly serve justice to all the society.

Implementation of a law as it is written by government officials has also its own role in rendering justice. In order for freedom to flourish, people need to know what the law is and need to have confidence that officials will faithfully apply the law as it is written. If a police officer can arrest you because you have somehow violated his sense of justice and if a judge can convict you because she thinks that what you did was unjust, then you might be incarcerated for innocent behavior. There would be no predictability in such a system.

Generally, there are some instances in which there exist a variance between law and justice.

CONCLUSION

For the naturalists rights are rationally applicable to all human beings without any kind of difference of place, time and environment. And natural rights emanate from natural law. A judicial decision is only evidence of the law, the doctrine that judges always find the law and never make it, are not without an important purpose. The rights of nature are not dependent upon any moral principle or law. Positivists on the other hand believe that law is made by human beings and the law maker enacts a just law. 

The relationship between law and justice is unbreakable and there is a direct relationship between the two. It is also highly believed that they are two faces of a coin. And many people consider the proper implementation of laws as a justice. However, all laws are not just laws and entitle rights to all human beings. Since every law has its own political, sociological, philosophical and historical background in a given society, it will definitely benefit and harm different groups in a society and cannot uniformly serve justice to all the society. It cannot also uniformly treat all human beings.

For example, apartheid law was not a just law in the sense that it is enacted to entitle human rights to individuals based on their race and colour. Individuals having a race and colour out of what is indicated in the law are not allowed to enjoy the rights even though they are human beings. And the law maker has just used the law as means of fulfilling its desire and the law in such case is not using as a means of serving justice.

Finally, we can generally conclude that if laws are enacted for the interest of the whole society, it can be considered as a means of serving justice. In this sense for a law to be considered as a means of serving justice the law should in the first place indicate equal distribution of goods, opportunities,  resources and rights and should not be the utility of few. And as Thomas Aquinas said the principal purpose of law should be protecting the common good. Secondly this law should be properly and effectively applicable without any kind of differentiation to all similar cases in a similar manner. But, coming to the reality there are laws that are against the law of nature and there are also instances in which there are no effective implementation of laws. In such instances it is impossible to serve justice through laws. Therefore, since law is the means to an end, the law itself should be a just law as a prerequisite to use it as a means of serving justice.