Procedural justice (short note)

Procedural justice

Procedural justice is the idea that justice lies in the fairness of the process by which decisions are reached, rather than in the result: it is justice according to law and to the procedure the law lays down, so that justice is taken to be done when those procedures are followed. IGNOU sets it against substantive justice, which judges the outcome.

Features. (1) Formal equality: everyone is equal before the law whatever their gender, religion or caste. (2) Just administration of laws: the rule of law, impartial judges and an independent judiciary. (3) Rights as a limit on the state: rights-based justice is procedural, and it denies the state a right to interfere with individual entitlements; the state must give reasons before a court for curtailing a person's liberty. (4) Voluntary exchange and competition free of coercion in the market.

Examples. In the courtroom, procedural justice is the right to a free and fair trial, one of the civil liberties of democratic government; in the market, it is free and fair competition, where, as defenders of free markets say, whatever the outcome of the market distribution it would be just. Nozick's entitlement theory is IGNOU's example of a procedural theory of justice, and IGNOU also calls Rawls's original position a fair proceduralist standard, since a principle counts as fair only if an ideal procedure would accept it.

Evaluation. Procedural fairness protects against arbitrary power and is easier to agree on than a fair outcome; but a fair procedure can yield an unjust distribution (in a market, the weak may be left without basic goods), and so it must be accompanied by substantive justice, the concern with results.