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Discuss the Meaning of Justice. Discuss Whether the Law Achieves Justice and Whether It Should Seek to Do so.

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This essay shall discuss initial the meaning of justice then I shall discuss whether the law achieves justice and whether it should seek to do so. Justice has been traditionally defined through its reference to the Latin maxim suum cuique tribuere its means to allocate each to their own. Many theories have been formed to try to define their own personal form of justice, an example being Aristotle who was a Greek philosopher who made the original distinction between distributive and corrective justice which remains relevant to this day. Distributive Justice concerns the correct distribution of wealth and privilege between the members of society.
Aristotle argued that there should be a proportionate distribution of such goods and burdens but he did not mean by this that there should not be an equal distribution of goods and burdens. Also stating that some people of limited capacity were unable to obtain or appreciate the good life, and therefore argued that those people should act as slaves to support others in society. In today’s issues a distributive justice issue would be known as a matter of politics. It could be said that the current law system incorporates Aristotle’s theory through section 18 and section 20 Grievous Bodily Harm (GBH). To be guilty of section 20, one must either be ‘reckless’ or ‘intend’ some harm, in some cases this poses a possible 5 year sentence. In great contrast to this is section 18, where a defendant must have ‘intended’ really serious harm and this has the possible prospect of a life sentence. An example being should the rich be taxed in order to fund public services, such as the NHS and the state education system. Aristotle also spoke on how we should base distributive justice on fair distribution of wealth and power based on merit and not need.
There is also the utilitarian theory promoted by Jeremy Bentham this theory suggests

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