“In the little world in which children have their existence”, says Pip in Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, “there is nothing so finely perceived and finely felt, as injustice.” – from the preface of Idea of Justice, Amartya Sen.
And yet, people often ask me “What is justice ? How is it different from equity? Is it relevant in medical and health research?” To be honest, I was initially a bit taken aback when people asked me these questions. But overtime, these conversations allowed me to see that while justice is an innately understood, it is actually difficult to translate the concept of justice to what it means to our work in medical and health research. In the first of a three-part explainer I answer, the first of the three questions I asked – what is justice ,and what are its types. The explainer targets, medical and public health professionals.
Broadly, justice refers to the moral (or ethical) concept that each person is entitled to get what is their due. This brings us to the closely related concept of fairness. Justice and fairness are sometimes used interchangeably. In most languages there is word for one of them, but not the other – the meaning of that specific term leans more towards one or the other. Without going to the linguistic intricacies of it , it is justifiable to say that in English they have overlapping but distinct meanings . To quote, Velasquez et al, “While justice usually has been used with reference to a standard of rightness, fairness often has been used with regard to an ability to judge without reference to one’s feelings or interests; fairness has also been used to refer to the ability to make judgments that are not overly general but that are concrete and specific to a particular case”.
The broad concept of justice is often quite difficult to concentrate on and finding a meaning of justice relevant to one’s context. Knowing the types of justice, also enables us to see what justice means beyond the legal systems standpoint(which overwhelmingly clouds our view of what justice entails). I have categorized the different types of justice under three broad categories. It is important to recognize that different knowledge systems categorise them differently and it is not necessary to make a clear elucidation between them so long as the broad concept is understood. For each type, I have given a link for further reading. In doing so, I have attempted to choose ones which provide foundational information, wherever possible.
- Overarching Justice types
- Procedural justice – idea that processes for setting priorities, allocating resources and resolving disputes should be fair and transparent. Read more.
- Retributive justice – idea that harms and wrongdoing in terms of climate change should be sanctioned or punished in proportion to the harms they committed. It is conceptually linked to the idea of procedural justice and distributive justice. Read more.
- Distributive justice – idea that the distribution of resources , benefits and costs for should be distributed in a fair manner in a society. Read more.
- Social Justice – is the idea that there should be fair and equitable division of resources, opportunities, and privileges in society. Read more.
- Transitional Justice is the idea around how societies should respond to the legacies of massive and serious human rights violations and injustice. It consists of judicial measures, systems reform (constitutional, legal and institutional, strengthening of civil society, memorialization, cultural and preservation initiative) and other initiatives . This is commonly used in the human rights space – regrettable not so much in terms of humanitarian health space. Read more.
- Knowledge Systems Related
- Epistemic Injustice – idea of harm being done to a person in their capacity as a knower or creator of knowledge. This might be in the form of unfair deficit or credibility to marginalised communities or nations(testimonial injustice) or be in the form of being prevented from understanding or communicating their experiences due to a lack of shared interpretive resources(hermeneutical injustice). Read more.
- Inter-generational justice – idea that the current generation has a responsibility to leave a better planet for future generations of humans . Almost all Eastern and Indigenous philosophies recognize this. Read more.
- Justice in relation to climate change
- Climate Justice -idea that countries, industries, businesses, and people who have become wealthy by contributing the most to climate change are responsible for sharing their wealth with those affected by it, particularly the ones that have contributed the least to the crisis. Read more.
- Multi-species Justice (justice for non-human animals, plants and nature) – idea that humans who have moral agency have a responsibility to consider the cause of non-human animals, plants and nature to enable justice from them. Almost all Indigenous philosophies recognize this justice, and it is not considered as interconnected to the wider sense of justice. In modern times it is widely used in the context of climate crisis which is drive by humans and responsibility to act against climate change and consider the cause of non-human animals, plants and nature. Read more.
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Did I miss other types of justice ? Any other suggestions/critique ? Please let me know out through contact info in home page.
Cite as: Bhaumik S. Justice: What is it, and what are its types? 2025 (Version 1.0). Available online at www.soumyadeepbhaumik.com Licensed Under CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0
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