> Does any one know the difference between justice and fairness.


I think a lot of people are relating "justice" to governmental law and "fairness" to societal ideals. Dunno if I agree with that.

First, I think Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" attempts to explain, or at least provoke the reader to think about the difference better. I remember the last line being, "It's not right! It's not fair!" But. The lottery itself was completely *fair.* It was impossible to cheat. Everyone had the same chance to "win" the lottery. But the fact that the lottery was about stoning an innocent person to death wasn't right. It wasn't *just.*

I think justice has more to do with righting a wrong or punishing a deed, whereas fairness has to do with looking at each situation, whether there was some perceived or actual wrongdoing or just whether each person gets a reasonable amount of a chocolate bar, and forming a concensus, even and especially to the point of compromise, as to what compensates or satisfies each person the most.

Ostensibly, our justice system is set up on fairness: we have juries judge each case so that they can assess each situation and take into consideration any mitigating or aggravating factors, and dole out "justice" accordingly. Otherwise, the option would be to have a set punishment for each crime, regardless of extenuating cirumstances. That's not fair.

I guess my summation would be "fairness precedes justice, but not the other way around."

Mou"why do I feel like we're writing your essay on one of the works discussed?"sie