EQUALITY/JUSTICE

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Equality and Justice
In general, equality is the state of being equal in terms of value, ability, rank, and degree. Justice is simply the fairness when it comes to the protection of rights as well as the punishment of wrongs committed by individuals. The aim of most legal systems in the world is to uphold justice however there are some laws that bring injustice instead of justice. In law, equality is a principle of justice. There are three theories that revolve the area of equality and justice which will be discussed in this paper. The three theories are Mills theory of Utilitarianism, Nozick theory of Libertarianism and Rawl’s theory of justice.
In Mills theory of Utilitarianism, Mills states that actions are considered as right according to the level of happiness they bring. Additionally, according to Mills, actions are considered as wrong if they produce feelings reverse of happiness. According to Mills happiness is simply the absence of pain. According to Mills the basis of morality is happiness. Therefore for an action to be termed as fair and just it should provide a certain level of happiness to the participants. According to this utilitarianism theory, Mill states that justice is based on the utility which brings about rights that are supposed to fulfill human happiness (Ruitenberg & Claudia & Daniel, n.d).
Rawl came up with a theory of equality and justice in his book called “A Theory of Justice.” In his theory, Rawl rejects the concept of utilitarianism that was created by Mills.

Additionally, Rawl agrees with Nozick that morality and justice are quite different things. In this theory, Rawl came up with two principles that govern justice. The first system suggests that every individual must have equal rights. The second principle states that the economic and social inequalities that exist are in existence so as to satisfy conditions. The first condition is that that the inequalities are attached to the offices and positions that are open to the public. The second condition is that they will be expected to provide the greatest advantage to the least advantaged members of the society (Miller & David, 222-237).
Nozick’s theory of justice does not find utilitarianism relevant in the field of justice. In his theory of justice, Nozick argued that humans have “Lockean” rights that created from the human nature which is more powerful when compared to the political institutions. An example of such rights as discussed by Nozick is the right to property. Nozick stated that such rights are absolute and free from violation by any individual. According to Nozick, there are three principles of justice that guard the right to property. The first principles state that any possession held by someone who acquired that property according to legally is entitled to the possession. The second principle states that an individual who acquires property through the transfer of the property in a legal manner is entitled to that property if the person transferring the property was legally entitled to it. The third principle states that no individual is entitled to a property except through applications of the first two principles named above (Tronto & Joan, n.d).
Equality and justice is a situation that every society in the world wants to achieve. However, there is a need to refresh our minds on the theories that explain the concept of equality and justice. The three theories that have been discussed in this paper seem to have both comparing and contrasting ideas on the concept of equality and justice. Therefore due to this situation this area is one that requires new theories to be developed as an upgrade of the existing theories.
Works Cited
Miller, David. “Equality and justice.” Ratio 10.3 (1997): 222-237.
Ruitenberg, Claudia, and Daniel Vokey. “Equality and justice.” The SAGE Handbook of Philosophy of Education (2010): 401.
Tronto, Joan C. Caring democracy: Markets, equality, and justice. NYU Press, 2013.