Law and Social Justice: Rawls’s Theory of Justice, Distributive Justice Debates, and Legal System Evaluation
## Rawls’s Theory of Justice
Rawls’s *A Theory of Justice* (1971) is the 20th century’s most influential political philosophy work in the English-speaking world. **Veil of Ignorance** thought experiment: imagine designing society’s basic rules in an “Original Position,” completely ignorant of our position in future society (class, race, gender, talents, values). In this state of ignorance, what justice principles would rational people choose?
**First Principle (Liberty Principle)**: Each person has equal claim to the most extensive basic liberty system compatible with others’ — liberty takes priority over equality. **Second Principle (Difference Principle and Fair Equality of Opportunity)**: Social and economic inequalities are only just when (a) benefiting the least-advantaged members, and (b) open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity. The Difference Principle is Rawls’s most radical claim: requiring not just equality of opportunity but that inequality benefits the bottom stratum — essentially requiring “maximizing the minimum” (Maximin principle).
## Nozick’s Libertarian Critique
**Robert Nozick’s** *Anarchy, State, and Utopia* (1974) mounted the most powerful response to Rawls: the Difference Principle requires continuous redistribution, which necessarily violates individuals’ legitimate property rights obtained through voluntary exchange. Nozick’s **Entitlement Theory**: if you acquired something through just acquisition and voluntary transfer, you’re entitled to hold it — the government has no right to redistribute it for equality purposes. Nozick’s famous formulation: “individual rights over oneself take priority over state distribution.”
**Michael Sandel’s** communitarian critique differs: Rawls presupposes an “Unencumbered Self,” but individuals’ identities and values cannot be separated from their communities, histories, and traditions — justice must be founded on particular communities’ Common Good, not procedural neutrality. Sandel’s *Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?* is the best introduction to political philosophy; see also the [Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy’s Rawls entry](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rawls/).
