Excerpt from Justice and Happiness
The primary application, then, of the word justice is to institutions, and an individual"s disposition maybe called just only so far as it partakes of the qualities which constitute the justice of institutions. A tyranny, for reasons which will soon be apparent, can never be just, but a tyrant may be, and often is, when his action is directed by the same principles which constitute justice in a free State; though, even then, it may be doubted whether the result is wholly good, as it tends to reconcile his subjects to institutions which are bad. The word suum in the phrase suum cuique might have been translated "his own", i. e. property, but this would have excluded retributive justice, and made the definition still more defective; so the word "due" has been used instead. It has, however, often been understood as identifying justice with respect for property, and in that sense has been in high favour with conservative thinkers. David Hume can see no limit to its usefulness. "Human society and human nature will still arrive at greater degrees of happiness and perfection the more inviolable is the regard paid to the duty of enforcing the rights of private property." That duty is "sacred" even if nothing else is. We shall see how far this very high praise is deserved.
Our method of procedure will be to examine all the various actions or motives to which the term "just" has been applied, in the hope of discovering in all some common feature or quality.
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