Showing papers on "Economic Justice published in 1985"

Justice as Fairness

Abstract: It might seem at first sight that the concepts of justice and fairness are the same and that there is no reason to distinguish them or to say that one is more fundamental than the other. This chapter shows that the fundamental idea in the concept of justice is fairness, and offers an analysis of the concept of justice from this point of view. It argues that it is the aspect of justice for which utilitarianism, in its classical form, is unable to account, but which is expressed, even if misleadingly, by the idea of the social contract. The chapter develops a particular conception of justice by stating and commenting upon two principles which specify it and by considering the circumstances and conditions under which they may be thought to arise. It considers justice only as a virtue of social institutions, or what is called as practices.

Making Sense of Marx

Abstract: Preface and acknowledgments Introduction 1. Explanation and dialectics Part I. Philosophy and Economics: 2. Philosophical anthropology 3. Economics 4. Exploitation, freedom and justice Part II. Theory of History: 5. Modes of production 6. Classes 7. Politics and the state 8. Ideologies 9. Capitalism, communism and revolution Conclusion references Index of names index of subjects.

Liberty, market, and state: Political economy in the 1980s

Abstract: Most economists read more than they write. James Buchanan manages to write more than most economists can read. Because his varied writings on social philosophy and political economy are necessarily scattered among publications around the globe, Buchanan’s latest book, Liberty, Market and State, should prove to be a valuable collection to Buchanan watchers. It brings together his writings under therubric of“constitutional political economy,” or what I prefer to call “constitutional economics.” This book is of significance to the readers of this journal for two fundamental reasons. First, it breaks irrevocably with the conventional wisdom among economists, namely, that economics as a discipline, per Se, has little or nothing to contribute to ourunderstanding ofnormative matter, including justice, fairness, and morality. Economists are able to assume the role of the detached observer-analyst largely because the rules of the market and/or political game are assumed to be given, meaning the distribution ofpower, an intrinsically ethical matter, has already been determined. With matters of power given by assumption, economists are largely free to discuss how people trade to improve their lot. “The predictive ‘science of economics,’” Buchanan writes, “is positively valuable to government agents, business firms, andprivate individuals. Persons can ‘play better games’ if they can predict their opponents’ strategy more accurately” (p. 33). However, the realm of the “science of political economy” has, according to Buchanan, a much different purpose: “to evaluate the structure of the constraints, ‘the law,’ with some ultimate objective of redesign or reform aimed at securing enhanced efficiency in the exploitation of the potential mutuality of alternative systems” (p. 33). ,The science of (constitutional) political economy cannot sidestep normative matters or even the question of how alternative systems of constraints can and should be evaluated. Throughout the book, Buchanan espouses general agreement as the critical normative test for adoptions of social systems or reforms in those systems:

Self-contained regimes*

Abstract: On 29 November 1979 the United States of America instituted proceedings before the International Court of Justice against the Islamic Republic of Iran in respect of the seizure and holding as hostages of members of the US diplomatic and consular staff and certain other US nationals. Although the Government of Iran chose not to appear before the Hague Court it defined its position in two communications addressed to the Court on 9 December 1979 and 17 March 1980. In these letters the Iranian Government took the view that the Court could not and should not take cognizance of the case since the question of the hostages“only represents a marginal and secondary aspect of an overall problem, one such that it cannot be studied separately and which involves, inter alia, more than 25 years of continual interference by the United States in the internal affairs of Iran, the shameless exploitation of our country, and numerous crimes perpetrated against the Iranian people, contrary to and in conflict with all international and humanitarian norms.”

Etymologies and genealogies : a literary anthropology of the French Middle Ages

Abstract: "Mr Bloch has attempted to establish what he calls a 'literary anthropology' The project is important and ambitious It seems to me that Mr Bloch has completely achieved this ambition" Michel Foucault "Bloch's Study is a genuinely interdisciplinaryone, bringing together elements of history, ethnology, philology, philosophy, economics and literature, with the undoubted ambition of generating a new synthesis which will enable us to read the Middle Ages in a different light Stated simply, and in terms which do justice neither to the density nor the subtlety of his argument, Bloch's thesis is this: that medieval society perceived itself in terms of a vertical mode of descent from origins This model is articulated etymologically in medieval theories of grammar and language, and is consequently reflected in historical and theological writings; it is also latent in the genealogical structure of the aristocratic family as it began to be organized in France in the twelfth century, and is made manifest in such systems of signs as heraldry and the adoption of patronymns It is an ingenious and compelling synthesis which no medievalist, even on this side of the Atlantic, can afford to ignore" Nicholas Mann, "Times Literary Supplement""

Religion in American Public Life

Abstract: We are,"" said Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, ""a religious people,"" and his observation is continually borne out in every aspect of American public life. Religious ideals underlay the founding of the colonies and the firming of the new nation; the activities of churches have been closely interwined with politics in the abolition of slavery, the drive for women's suffrage, the prohibition of liquor,and the civil rights movement of the 1960s. The recent revival of arguments over the participation of relgious groups in politics points up the continuing controversey about the separation of church and state. In this study, A. James Reichley places religion and politics within a conceptual framework that considers the values in which both are rooted and examines, in light of that framework, the actual impact of religion and religious groups on American public life. He analyzes the underlying causes and issues involved, their contemporary impact, and their continuing evolution. Finally he discusses how the involvement of religious groups in politics can be carried on within the context of the separation of church and state without threat to civil liberties or seculat politicalization of religion.

Ethics, Efficiency and the Market

Abstract: This is a systematic evaluation of the main arguments for and against the market as an instrument of social organization, balancing efficiency and justice . It links the distinctive approaches of philosophy and economics to this evaluation.

Out of Eden

Abstract: Religion can inspire. It can also distort, and this is precisely what it does for Professors McThenia and Shaffer.' It leads them to mistake the periphery for the center. In my earlier article' I tried to come to terms with a movement that seeks alternatives to litigation. Known as ADR ("Alternative Dispute Resolution"), this movement is headed by Chief Justice Burger and is now sweeping the bar. It recently received the endorsement of the President of Harvard, Derek Bok, and the Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. In 1983, the Advisory Committee managed to revise Rule 16 to strengthen the hand of the trial judge in brokering settlements, and for the last two years the Committee has been engaged in a determined campaign to amend Rule 68 to create additional pressure for settlement. The party who rejects an offer of settlement would, if the Advisory Committee has its way, stand in jeopardy of paying the attorney's fees of the other side. Professors McThenia and Shaffer now lend their voices to this movement, but in an unusual way. They add a religious dimension. They emphasize reconciliation rather than settlement, and appear to be moved by a conception of social organization that takes the insular religious community as its model: "Justice is what we discover-you and I, Socrates said-when we walk together, listen together, and even love one another, in our curiosity about what justice is and where justice comes from."4 McThenia and Shaffer speak out on behalf of social mechanisms that might restore or preserve loving relationships and, not surprisingly, they find the judicial judgment a rather inept instrument for that purpose. I have no special interest in countering their plea: I am as much for love as the next person. What McThenia and Shaffer say is not wrong,

What is private property

Abstract: Many writers have argued that it is, in fact, impossible to define private property-that the concept itself defies definition. If those arguments can be sustained, then disputes about the justifiability of private property are misconceived. Since private property is indefinable, it cannot serve as a useful concept in political and economic thought: nor can it be a point of interesting debate in political philosophy. Instead of talking about property, we should talk about more general features of economic organization (whether to have a market economy; if not, how the economy is to be managed; what principles of justice are to constrain economic institutions and policy; and so on) or, if we want to focus on individuals, about the detailed particular rights that people have to do certain things with certain objects-rights which vary considerably from case to case, from object to object, and from legal system to legal system. But, if these sceptical arguments hold, we should abandon the enterprise of arguing about private property as such-of saying that it is, or is not, conducive to liberty, prosperity, or

Fairness and Formality: Minimizing the Risk of Prejudice in Alternative Dispute Resolution

Abstract: Presents an overview of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and contrasts the quality of justice it affords to that of the in-court variety. Concludes, based on social science literature, that ADR is likely to increase the risk of prejudicial behavior and outcomes, especially for disempowered disputants. Summarizes criticisms of ADR and suggests ways of lessening prejudice in alternative disputing without sacrificing its benefits of speed and low cost.

Community Justice, Capitalist Society, and Human Agency: The Dialectics of Collective Law in the Cooperative

Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between social structures and community justice. It rejects both those arguments that see community justice as independent experiments for the development of an alternative system of justice and those that see such experiments as functioning solely in the interests of dominant legal and social structures. Based on a study of the collective justice systems of a variety of small-scale cooperatives, the paper develops a theory in which community justice is shown to be ambiguously related to the larger system in which it is set and to the groups and individuals who make up that system. This ambiguity, it is argued, is capable of transforming the wider structure, and the theory allows us to glimpse a potential for broad-based socio-legal change.

Shadow Justice: The Ideology and Institutionalization of Alternatives to Court

Abstract: This first critical examination of informal dispute processing links the institutionalization of alternatives to the court process and the ideology of informalism with the evolution of the American court system. The author connects dispute processing reform to the broader social and political context in which it developed, including the rise of judicial management in the Progressive period and the reconstruction of court unification in the 1970s. Harrington defines legal resources and their distribution in alternative dispute resolution policy before focusing on the institutionalization of this reform in a case study of a federally sponsored Neighborhood Justice Center. In conclusion, Harrington finds that the symbols of informalism and its institutions are a mere shadow of conventional legal practices.

The Quest for Justice: Aboriginal Peoples and Aboriginal Rights

Abstract: This collection of many voices develops more deeply and exhaustively the issues raised in the editors' earlier volume, Pathways to Self-Determination. It contains some twenty-three papers from representatives of the aboriginal people's organizations, of governments, and of a variety of academic disciplines, along with introductions and an epilogue by the editors and appendices of the key constitutional documents from 1763. The contributors represent a broad cross-section of tribal, geographic, and organizational perspectives. They discuss constitutional questions such as land rights, the concerns of Metis, non-status Indians, and Inuit; and native rights in broad contexts - historical, legal/constitutional, political, regional, and international. The issue of aboriginal rights and of what these rights mean in terms of land and sovereignty has become increasingly important on the Canadian political agenda. The constitutional conferences between government and aboriginal peoples have revealed the gulf between what each side means by aboriginal rights: for the Indians these rights are meaningless without sovereign self-government, an idea the federal and provincial governments are not willing to entertain. Somewhere in the middle lies the concept of nationhood status. Ultimately, the aboriginal peoples are asking for justice from the dominant society around them; if it is denied or felt to be denied, the editors conclude, the consequences for the Canadian self-concept would be costly and debilitating. The twenty-four contributors provide a find guide to this profound and complex problem, whose solution depends on our understanding and our political wisdom.

Dangerous Offenders: The Elusive Target of Justice

Abstract: Examines the development of criminal justice programs designed to concentrate on the conviction and imprisonment of especially dangerous criminals.

Social work, justice and control

Abstract: What can social workers really hope to achieve in dealing with criminals and courts? Are they here to reduce crime or help people in trouble with the law? Professional workers in the probation and allied services constantly confront these questions, and there is increasing confusion about their role. The 1982 Criminal Justice Act in particular has posed new and urgent problems. Peter Raynor examines the sources and practical consequences of current uncertainty, and suggests ways of understanding and practising social work as an essential part of the humane criminal justice system.

Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story: Statesman of the Old Republic

Abstract: The primary founder and guiding spirit of the Harvard Law School and the most prolific publicist of the nineteenth century, Story served as a member of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1811 to 1845. His attitudes and goals as lawyer, politician, judge, and legal educator were founded on the republican values generated by the American Revolution. Story's greatest objective was to fashion a national jurisprudence that would carry the American people into the modern age without losing those values.

Social Choice and Justice: A Review Article

Abstract: G REAT WORKS often do not immediately get the attention they deserve. David Hume's Treatise of Human Nature "fell," in his own words, "dead born from the press."' John Stuart Mill's The Subjection of Women was received coolly (it was the only book of Mill on which his publisher lost money).2 Bertrand Russell has recorded his disappointment at the reception that Principia Mathematica got: "I used to know of only six people who had read the later parts of the book. Three of these were Poles, subsequently (I believe) liquidated by Hitler."3 The remaining three readers apparently got back to their old lazy ways soon enough: "The other three were Texans, subsequently successfully assimilated"-a result as bad as being liquidated so far as the effect on the deserted Principia Mathematica

Louis D. Brandeis: Justice for the People

Abstract: Traces the life and career of the great Supreme Court justice and discusses his involvement with labor unions, trust busting, women's suffrage, unemployment legislation, and Zionism.

Rule Utilitarianism, Equality, and Justice

Abstract: Utilitarianism and the Concept of Social UtilityIn this paper I propose to discuss the concepts of equality and justice from a rule utilitarian point of view, after some comments on the rule utilitarian point of view itself.Let me start with the standard definitions. Act utilitarianism is the theory that a morally right action is one that in the existing situation will produce the highest expected social utility. (I am using the adjective “expected” in the sense of mathematical expectation.) In contrast, rule utilitarianism is the theory that a morally right action is simply an action conforming to the correct moral rule applicable to the existing situation. The correct moral rule itself is that particular behavioral rule that would yield the highest expected social utility if it were followed by all morally motivated people in all similar situations.

Ethics, efficiency, and the market

Abstract: This is a systematic evaluation of the main arguments for and against the market as an instrument of social organization, balancing efficiency and justice . It links the distinctive approaches of philosophy and economics to this evaluation.

The criminal process in the People's Republic of China

Abstract: (1985). The criminal process in the People's Republic of China. Justice Quarterly: Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 117-125.