Justice is achieved when everything is ordered as it should be, according to its nature and what it deserves. Since only Omniscience can know what is perfectly just for all individuals within a complex system, governments should aim lower. Fairness is procedural, rather than substantial, and aims at establishing rules that make justice a more likely outcome. Such rules may be "unfair" in a limited sense, for example, by assuming that someone is innocent until guilt is established "beyond a reasonable doubt", but that is because we realize that perfect neutrality cannot be counted on, and therefore strive to make things fairer than we believe they would otherwise be. Thus, even fairness is approximate.
We judge the fairness of governments, in their constitution as well as conduct, by the rules they establish, and their adherence to those rules. The rules are fair when they make it likely that the outcome will result from careful consideration and conscientious judgement, or as likely as we can hope for. That is one reason,for example, that we have so many barriers to the passage of legislation: if we are to have error, it will, at least, not be in the direction of instability. If we approve of the rules, the existing regime is fair to the extent it plays by them. |
