Social and Global Justice

Abstract

The idea of justice tends to a successive widening of its scope. In the course of social development, it has been extended to pretty complex and large social arrangements. Around the turn of the twentieth century, it became common to talk about “social justice” in relation to entire social orders. Currently, there is a further widening of the idea in regard to the global order, i.e., the growing discussion on “global justice.” The paper aims to shed light on the concepts of social and global justice by tracing them back to the basic elements of the underlying idea of justice. With this aim in view, the article begins with some preliminary remarks on the vocabulary of justice in general in order to clarify the conceptual framework in which the notions of social and global justice are embedded. It then explicates the concept of social justice in a rather general way that is compatible with its various substantial political interpretations, such as liberalism or socialism. Finally, it turns to the idea of global justice with the intention of making it intelligible and more precise.