Chapter 4

Ends and Effects of Law

Justice

Determinants of a good law is if it conforms to the principles of justice and fairness.

According to Roman jurist Ulpian

Purpose of law – to live honorably, not to hurt anyone, and to give everyone his due.
Definition of Justice – justice is a constant and perpetual will to give everyone his due.

Significance of justice

Its tendency to counteract the crude egoism of the individual.

With justice and fairness, many problems of the world can be solved.

A just person gives everyone his due

Unjust person takes more for himself of those which should have been given for others.

Unjust man
- If he breaks the law
- Takes more than his due (unfair)

2 kinds of justice according to Aristotle

Natural – has the same validity everywhere, and does not depend on our accepting it or not.

Conventional – that in the first instance may be settled in one way or the other.

Equity – when law is unjust. In order to rectify legal justice.

Equity comes when for any reason law become unjust.

In philosophy
Justice is the concept of a proper proportion between a person’s deserts and the good and the bad things
that befall or are allotted to him or her.

Egoism - The theory that one’s self is, or should be, the motivation and the goal of one’s own action.

Social justice according to supreme court (Calalang v. Willliams)

- Social justice is neither communism, nor despotism, nor atomism, nor anarchy, but the
humanization of laws and the equalization of social and economic forces by the state so that
justice in is rational and objectively secular conception may at least be approximated.
- Promotion of the welfare of all the people.

Chapter 5
Ends and Effects of Law
Wisdom and Law as Heuristic
Wisdom
- A person’s virtues.
- Qualities which law seeks to develop

Wise men, positive qualities

A. A mature and integrated personality.
B. Superior judgement skills in difficult life matters.
C. The ability to cope with the vicissitudes of life.

*Always been associated with the elders of society.

Intellectual or Theoretical knowledge – knowledge that is understood only at the intellectual level,
whereas wisdom is understood at the experiential level.

Plato’s view on wisdom

- Considered the possibility of establishing a state in which law I omitted, and where society is
instead ruled by the wisdom of the philosopher King.

Heuristic
- A model or useful hypothesis
- A method that provides assistance in discovering a truth or solving a problem.

Chapter 6
Ends and Effects of Law

Equity

According to Aristotle: Equity is the rectification of law in so far as law is defective on account of its
generality.
Not everything can be regulated by law.

Black’s Law Dictionary

- The recourse to principles of justice to correct or supplement the law as applied to particular
circumstances.

Equity Jurisprudence – a formal set of legal and procedural rules and doctrines to aid and even
override common and statute law in order to protect the rights and enforce duties fixed by substantive
law.

Equitable Principles in International Environmental Law

1. Common but differentiated responsibilities.

- That the world is a common heritage of mankind.
- States have common responsibility towards its protection.

2. Sustainable Development
- Assesses or quantifies development in relation to its long range impact on the both the local and
wider environment.

3. Intergenerational Equity
 - Believes that humanity must hold the natural and cultural environment of the Earth in common
both with members of the present generation and with other generations, past and future.

Chapter 9
Equal Access before the Law

To administer the law without fear or favor, and treat all parties fairly.

Equality before the law seeks to equalize access to and opportunities to avail of the benefits of law.

Positive Discrimination
- To compensate for past cases of exploitation or persecution by the majority group.
- Examples: Maternity leaves, PWD building ramps.
- Case Study: Domestic Helpers in Singapore.

Chapter 10
Liberalism

- Is the belief in the value of the individual human personality and a profound conviction that all
human progress has been due to the free exercise of human powers.

Negative or Classical Liberalism

- Refers to a state of being free from constraint.

Examples: provisions of the Bill of Rights

Right to life, liberty, property, the freedom of religion, abode, travel and the right against
unlawful arrests and seizures.

Positive Liberalism

- Positive liberalists argue that the government must also actively promote various types of rights
and freedoms necessary for a liberal society to flourish.

Examples:
Right to adequate housing and education, decent standard of living, clean and green
surroundings, corruption-free election, honest government.

Case: Chua-Qua v. Clave

- Teacher-Student romance
- Got married
- School filed for a case
- Supreme court: applied liberal principles in matters of the heart and feelings, and refused to be
dissuaded by contrary opinion.
- Did not consider immoral for a teacher to fall in love with a much younger student, even though
to other people such conduct was adjudged ‘abusive’ and ‘unethical.’

Chapter 19
Sociology of Law

Functions of Law
 A. Social Control
— Usually done through the threat or fear of punishment and seldom based on reward.

B. Dispute Resolution

C. Social Change

Examples:
- smoking prohibition – reduced incidence of second hand smoking
- Prohibiting alcoholic drinks would wipe out incidence of alcoholism in our society.

Chapter 22
Types of Justice

The blindfold covering represents impartiality.

Courts in the Philippines are called Halls of Justice.

Justice is that quality of being “fair” or “just”

- Due process
- Due reward in accordance with law or a reasonable standard
- Fair treatment
- The quality of being unbiased
- Moral righteousness

Animi affectio suu cuique tribunes – soul’s disposition to give to each his own.

Justice as a rule of action insists that all acts and dealings with other people be done with fairness,
impartiality, equitableness and rectitude.

Types of Justice

1. Utilitarian Justice
- Looks at a law or an act’s ability to maximize benefit for society.
- Imposition of punishment.
- Criminals will realize that crime does not pay, and thee larger society. Is taught a lesson that it is
not worth violating the law.

2. Retributive Justice
- Aim to avenge the wrongs done to society.
- Seeks to enact rules which avenge crimes proportional to their gravity.

3. Restorative Justice
- Making thee victim “whole” and reintegrating thee offender back to society.

4. Distributive Justice
- The distribution or allocation of societal “goods” such as liberties, wealth, and income.
- The fairness, proportionality or equality in the distribution of such things as money, property,
privileges, opportunities, education or rights.
- Sometimes called Economic justice, and as such, is concerned with giving all the members of
society their fair share of the benefits and resources available.

A. Strict Egalitarianism
- Believes in radical equality.
- All humans are socially and politically equal.

Problem with Strict egalitarianism

- People do not have the same needs.

B. The Difference Principle

- Allows inequality in the distribution of goods only if the inequality will benefit the worst-off
members of society.
- Permits inequalities of wealth and income if those inequalities benefit the worst-off group in
society.

C. Desert-based Principle
- Deserved to get ones share depending on the level of action or work executed.
- Based on the contribution.

D. Libertarianism
- The equal liberty principle.
- Each individual should have an equal right to basic liberties.
- Rejects the idea of distributive justice.