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Abstract

Thomas Aquinas says that The act of justice is “rendering to each one his right,” and the virtue of Justice is “the perpetual and constant will to render to each one his right. He distinguishes the kinds of justice into the integral parts, the subjective parts and the potential parts according to how much each one includes these essential meanings of justice. The integral parts of justice is to “refrain from evil toward one’s neighbor and society”, and to “do the required good for them.” These are such that every kind of justice cannot be justice without them. They are the prime principles of justice. The subjective parts of justice are the species into which justice is divided. They are divided widely into general or legal justice, distributive justice, commutative justice. General justice regulates the obligations that members of political community have towards the common goods. The obligations of leal justice on the part of rulers is to distribute the duties and burdens which are necessary for political administration(taxes, offices, public responsbilities). The obligations of legal justice on the part of citizens is to fulfill the laws of the community virtuously and to collaborate with his fellows for the common good and for the development of the social order. Distributive justice is that virtue by which society distributes goods and burdens among its members, according to the merit, worthiness and need of each. Distributive justice regulates the relationship between the state and the individual citizen. Society has duties towards its citizens, the citizens have rights. The mean of the virtue which applies to distributive justice is proportional. Commutative justice is the virtue whereby a man renders to each one, by a constant and perpetual will, what is his exact due in the exchanges that can take place between two persons. Commutative justice seeks equality through an arithmetical medium. The potential parts of justice are the related virtues which for one reason or another are connected with justice but does not include the essential meanings of justice. They are divided wifely into two: “those which fail through defect of the equality to be observed between what is given and what is received, and those which are not based on a title of a strict right on the part of the other part.” In the former are included religion, piety, observance. In the latter are included gratitude, vengeance, veracity, affability, liberality, magnificence, equity.