Author: Bhavya Pankaj, Student at ILS Law College, Pune
INTRODUCTION
John Rawls was one of the best American political scientists. He was born in 1921 and passed away in 2002. His most renowned work was A Theory of Justice which was first published in 1970 and later it was revised and again published in 1990. In his revised edition, Rawls insisted that some important point and views have been revised, which is essential for our society. which subsequently was agreed by quite a few political scientists. they claim that it is one of the most prominent work in the English speaking world post world war II. Rawls advocated the cause of liberalism and challenged the inherent thought of equality and attainment of justice.
In his another important work Political Liberalism, which was published in 1993, he constituted his thought system which is modern liberalism. Even the social democrats and opponents of liberalism could not keep themselves away from its influence. According to him equality, inequality and other related ideas are to be judged in the background of social justice and social progress.
What is Justice According to Rawls? :
Rawls says that the conception of justice is an inherent nature of our social as well as practical life. As he was against the theory of utilitarianism, as it was justifying the slavery practice. He believes that justice means justice for all and not to the greater number. In his opinion “Justice is the first virtue of social intuitions as truth is of a system of thought”. Justice is related to the social institutions which guide and mould the actions and ideas of social beings. We certainly cannot imagine a well-ordered society whose core concept is not justice. Justice binds all men and institutions of society. And that is why justice must be served to every single individual. John Rawls has viewed justice in the background of society and for this reason, he says that the main concern of the subject matter of justice is a social structure which is the core of the society. So justice deals with the basic social structure. Social institutions are very important in the sense that they take the responsibility of distributing fundamental rights and duties efficiently. What is a social institution? A social institution consists of a group of people who have come together for a common purpose. These institutions are a part of the social order of society, and they govern the behaviour and expectations of individuals. So basically we distributed certainly unalienable and immaterial of their social status all much be given with justice. the social institutions also have to work to allocate judiciously the privileges people of society. Constitution, social, political and economic arrangements are included in these social institution’s task. Thus justice may commodiously be regarded as a social principle that determines the ways and procedure of distributing the rights and duties for the members of society. He further calls justice a social scheme based on which rights, duties, opportunities and condition are allotted. Thus justice is both a principle and a scheme.
