Procedural Justice - Perfect, Imperfect, and Pure Procedural Justice

Perfect, Imperfect, and Pure Procedural Justice

In A Theory of Justice, the philosopher John Rawls distinguished three ideas of procedural justice:

  1. Perfect procedural justice has two characteristics: (1) an independent criterion for what constitutes a fair or just outcome of the procedure, and (2) a procedure that guarantees that the fair outcome will be achieved.
  2. Imperfect procedural justice shares the first characteristic of perfect procedural justice--there is an independent criterion for a fair outcome--but no method that guarantees that the fair outcome will be achieved.
  3. Pure procedural justice describes situations in which there is no criterion for what constitutes a just outcome other than the procedure itself.

Read more about this topic:  Procedural Justice

Famous quotes containing the words pure and/or justice:

    The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility!
    Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)

    It is time that we start thinking about foundational issues: about our attitudes toward fair trials... Who are the People in a multicultural society?... The victims of discrimination are now organized. Blacks, Jews, gays, women—they will no longer tolerate second-class status. They seek vindication for past grievances in the trials that take place today, the new political trial.
    George P. Fletcher, U.S. law educator. With Justice for Some, p. 6, Addison-Wesley (1995)