Justice Reasoning Research Articles

Why the impacts of climate change may make us less likely to reduce emissions

Non-technical summary A widely held belief is that once the impacts of warming are experienced more directly and substantially, especially by affluent populations, the necessary support for a politics prioritising ambitious emissions reductions will follow. But consideration of the indirect socioeconomic impacts of warming suggests this could be false hope. Technical summary There is some evidence to support the common intuition that, as the direct impacts of warming intensify – particularly in the affluent Global North – a politics ambitious enough to confront the climate emergency may finally find support. However, it seems at least equally likely that the opposite trend will prevail. This proposition can be understood by considering various indirect impacts of warming, including the widening of socioeconomic inequalities (within and between countries), increases in migration (intra- and inter-nationally) and heightened risk of conflict (from violence and war through to hate speech and crime). Compiling these impacts reveals a considerable and highly inconvenient overlap with key drivers of the authoritarian populism that has proliferated in the 21st century. It highlights the risk of a socio-ecological feedback loop where the consequences of warming create a political environment entirely at odds with that required to reduce emissions. Such a future is, of course, far from inevitable. Nonetheless, the risks highlight the urgent need to find public support for combined solutions to climate change and inequality, which go well beyond the status-quo. This is necessary not only for reasons of economic and climate justice, but in order to mitigate political barriers to carbon mitigation itself. Social media summary As the impacts of warming are experienced more directly and substantially, we may vote for precisely the wrong people.

The value of sacrifice in (post-)growth scenarios

This is a conceptual paper, which contributes to the debate on the measure of intergenerational sacrifice and advances a post-growth theoretical framework that becomes intelligible within a wider space of deliberation, at once economic, social, and moral. We explore the three-pronged argument in two parts. First, we examine the implications of the socio-economic mechanism of the transition of the production mode from extractive to generative, which is envisaged to replace the market automatic response by allocative efficiency. A second part tackles the moral reason underlying decision-making. Drawing on the lessons of the post-growth debate, we propose and defend a working definition of the moral reason of intergenerational justice that should also underpin our rationalizing about other issues of similar importance regarding the obligations we owe to future people, such as passing on languages or containing epidemics.

Cross‐cultural comparison of engagement in ultimate and immanent justice reasoning

We investigated direct cross‐cultural differences in individuals’ immanent and ultimate justice reasoning about others’ misfortunes, focusing on deservingness as a mediating variable. Participants from the United States and Japan read a scenario describing a subject’s misfortune. The target subject’s moral worth was manipulated as that of a respected person or a thief. After reading the scenario, participants completed questionnaires containing items on immanent and ultimate justice reasoning as well as deservingness of receiving the misfortune and of future restitution. The analysis revealed that Japanese respondents tended to engage more in immanent justice reasoning than did American respondents when the target subject was of low moral worth, while American participants overall engaged more in ultimate justice reasoning compared with Japanese. Our hypotheses on the mediation effect of deservingness on the relationship between country and justice reasoning were partly supported. These findings suggest that an exploration of cultural differences in justice reasoning, incorporating the role of deservingness, can contribute to extending and strengthening the theory of justice reasoning.

Dignity of work and full employment

The paper offers a brief reconstruction of the varying fortunes of the Charter of Workers’ Rights, interpreted in light of the evolution of economic thinking on the role of the market – especially of the labor market – and on the reversal that has been made of the role of labor policy in relation to macroeconomic policy. It is argued that much of the problems facing our economies today are due to this reversal of roles. The author concludes that industrial relations and the world of work should enter in the remit of industrial policy due to the importance that the accumulation of individual and collective knowedge within firms have for the innovation of companies and the economic system of a country, as well as for reasons of justice.

The EU's role in income redistribution and insurance: Support, norm‐setter or provider? A review of justice‐based arguments

AbstractIncome redistribution and insurance are core functions of welfare states. What role should the EU play in this domain? I examine the purchase of normative theorizing on social justice on this question, focusing on the contrast between three models of EU involvement: the EU as Support, which implies the sharing of resources through intergovernmental transfers; the EU as Provider, which implies EU cross‐border transfers towards individual citizens; the EU as Norm‐setter, which implies that the EU formulates normative policy ideals. I review different accounts of justice for the EU and how they bear on the choice between these models of EU involvement. Conceptions of “background justice” have some purchase in a debate on the EU's role, but that purchase is limited. They need to be complemented by shared conceptions of domestic justice and a degree of moral cosmopolitanism. I argue that a “European Social Union” should be a Support and Norm‐setter in the realm of insurance and redistribution. Through the establishment of interstate insurance, it would be a true “insurance union.” It would engage in interstate redistribution, but there are no compelling reasons of justice for it to become a direct Provider of insurance or redistribution towards individual citizens.

Algunas reflexiones sobre la regulación del indulto al hilo del caso del procés

The pardons granted to those convicted of crimes committed in September and October 2017 during the attempted secession of Catalonia (in the judicial case generally known as The proces) have rekindled the controversy about the current regulation on pardons. As the applicable Law dates from 1870, it is perfectly possible that the ordinary courts decide not to apply its articles or modulate its application, if they consider them contradictory to constitutional requirements. This is the case with pardons granted not for reasons of justice or equity, but for public utility, such as those of the proces, especially when they are granted en bloc —which can mean a general pardon— and there is an evident conflict of interest —because their beneficiaries are the leaders of political parties that give parliamentary stability to the Spanish Government-. In any case, a new Pardon Law would prevent the improper use of measures of clemency and adjust them to what the Constitution requires.

Hidden Gems in the Wikipedia Discussions: The Wikipedians’ Rationales

This paper presents a series of completed and ongoing studies that are aimed at understanding the role of the Wikipedians’ rationales in the Wikipedia discussions. We define a rationale as one’s justification of her viewpoint and suggestion. Our studies demonstrate the potential of leveraging the Wikipedians’ rationales in the discussions as resources for future decision-makings and as resources for eliciting knowledge about the community’s norms, practices and policies. Viewed as the rich digital traces in these environments, we consider them to be beneficial for the community members, such as helping newcomers familiarize themselves on the commonly accepted justificatory reasoning styles. We call for more research attention to the discussion content from this rationale study perspective.

You deserve the bad (or good) service: the role of moral deservingness in observers’ reactions to service failure (or excellence)

PurposeThis paper aims to examine how observers evaluate a company that provides service failure (or excellence) to an immoral versus a moral customer. This study introduces the concept of deservingness to the service literature and suggests that observers appreciate when a company delivers “justice” – either bad service to an immoral customer or good service to a moral customer – and thus evaluate the company more favorably.Design/methodology/approachThis paper presents three online studies using scenarios (ns = 205, 199 and 181) and one lab study (n = 89) using a confederate to manipulate customer morality.FindingsAcross four studies, this study finds that a service failure has a less negative impact on observers’ company evaluations when observers consider the target customer immoral, and thus deserving of the bad outcome. Conversely, the positive impact of observing service excellence is enhanced when observers consider the target customer to be moral, and thus deserving of a good outcome. This effect occurs because the perception of deservingness leads observers to experience more positive feelings about the service outcome and these positive feelings transfer over to observers’ evaluations of the service provider.Research limitations/implicationsThe mechanism shares some similarities with the concept of immanent justice reasoning, whereby individuals draw a causal link between someone’s prior immoral behavior and an unrelated negative outcome. However, the studies go one step further by showing that such causal reasoning, at least on a moral level, can impact the judgments of the other party (in this case, the company involved in the service outcome).Practical implicationsService providers need to be particularly attentive when serving customers who are viewed in a positive light, as an observed failure that affects a moral customer can be particularly damaging to company evaluations. Conversely, companies should make efforts to publicize when exceptional service is given to nice, admirable customers, as this is particularly effective at improving evaluations.Originality/valueResearchers have examined how allocations of responsibility affect observers' evaluation of service encounters. This paper adds deservingness as an alternate mechanism and examines service excellence as well.

“Who” Matters, but How? Agent Bias in Justice Reasoning

We empirically investigate when and how the justice agent can impact employee perceptions of event justice. Our findings identify situations that give rise to an “agent bias”, defined as “the direct effect of agent characteristics on overall justice judgments regarding an event, over and above other possible effects on evaluations of distributive, procedural, informational, or interpersonal justice” (Cojuharenco, Marques, & Patient, 2017: 631). As predicted, characteristics of the agent become important in events that are unambiguously fair and unambiguously unfair. We find a positive relationship between agent warmth and overall event justice when the events are expected (i.e., congruent with agent characteristics), and a negative relationship between agent warmth and overall event justice when the events are unexpected (i.e., incongruent with agent characteristics). However, the agent bias does not manifest in the case of events that are ambiguous in terms of fairness. We explore key mediating mechanisms and the downstream consequences of the agent bias. This work contributes to the literature on organizational justice by documenting a specific bias, relating to agent characteristics, and by extending frameworks that highlight the role of context in justice reasoning. For practitioners, it suggests that who gets appointed to supervisory and management roles may matter for the perceived fairness of organizational events irrespective of the extent to which the appointees uphold traditional (non-agent) criteria of organizational justice.

High School Students’ Ethical Reasoning on Distributive Justice: Recognition and Redistribution

이 연구는 고등학생들이 어떤 식으로 분배를 결정하고, 이를 정당화하는지 알아본 것이다. 이러한 목적을 갖고, 본 연구는 고등학생들의 분배정의 추론방식을 알아보기 위해 협력 관계에 놓였으면서도 전문성이나 기술의 수준에서 차이가 나는 세 직종인 의사, 간호사, 청소노동자에게 한정된 월급을 분배하는 사고실험을 활용하였다. 연구결과의 타당성을 높이기 위해, 학생들의 응답을 3명의 훈련받은 평정자들이 코딩 프로토콜에 의해 부호화했으며, 평정자간 신뢰도는 대체로 양호하게 나타났다. 연구결과 첫째, 학생들이 수행한 분배정의 추론에서 나타난 정당화 근거로 전문성의 차이, 노력의 차이, 기여도의 차이 등 메리토크라시에 기초한 준거가 가장 두드러지게 나타났다. 둘째, 이러한 경향성에도 불구하고, 학생들이 제시한 세 직종간 임금 차등의 정도는 현실에서의 그것보다 훨씬 적게 나타났다. 셋째, 비교적 덜 불평등한 분배를 선호한 집단에서 종합적 추론방식 사용 비율이 비교적 높게 나타났다. 넷째, 학생들은 기여에 따른 보상 근거를 과거에 열심히 노력한 대가보다는 현재 또는 미래에의 기여도로 보는 경향이 있었다. 다섯째, 학생들이 사회구성원들 사이의 협력과 노동을 보다 더 존중할수록, 이들 사이의 분배도 비교적 더 평등하게 나타나는 경향이 있었다. 이는 앞으로 사회가 계층 양극화 문제를 극복하고, 복지국가로 나아가기 위해 열심히 일하는 모든 노동자들에 대한 존중 교육이 필요하다는 것을 말해준다. 또 사회문제에 대해 종합적으로 추론할 수 있는 능력을 신장하는 교육의 중요성을 시사한다.This study examines the way high school students make decisions about income distribution and justify their own decisions in hypothetical situations. For this, a thought experiment was developed in which respondents had to distribute upper-limit-restricted salaries to a doctor, a nurse, and a cleaner, who were in collaboration with each other but differed in levels of expertise. To guarantee the validity of the findings, the student responses to the questionnaire were coded by three raters according to a protocol designed for this study. A good inter-rater reliability was obtained. The results of this study first show that criteria based on meritocratic beliefs, such as differences in expertise, effort, and contribution, were the most prominent as justification for distributive justice reasoning by students. Second, nonetheless, respondents presented a much lower degree of discrimination in income distribution than that which actually existed. Third, the group in favor of less unequal distribution tended to use more comprehensive reasoning while the group favoring more unequal distribution used meritocratic criteria. Fourth, merit tended to be viewed as a contribution to the present or future rather than as a reward for hard work in the past. Fifth, and most importantly, it was found that the higher the respect for labor and cooperation among fellow social members was, the more equal the distribution of income among the three parties tended to be. This suggests the importance of education for respect for the labor of all hard-working people. It is also crucial to enhance comprehensive reasoning skills of distributive justice in order to overcome the problems of polarization of class to move forward toward a welfare state.

Analysing the Impact of the Glass Ceiling in a Managerial Career: The Case of Spain

The need to break down the barriers facing women in the labour market arouses great interest for reasons of social and sustainability justice. This study breaks new ground on the topic of the “glass ceiling” by assessing the evolution of gender inequality in the proportion of individuals reaching high managerial positions. The application of the csQCA method to a survey of two cohorts of Spanish graduates in management sharing the same starting conditions reveals two factors: job variety and additional education, as conditions that are usually present in a successful managerial career. Our findings confirm the prevalence of the gender gap with little progress in recent years. Women find it more difficult to promote to high managerial positions whereas being a man turns out to almost be a guarantee for eluding low managerial positions. In the context of Spain, and for sure in most other countries, the few women attaining high managerial positions still need to make a greater effort in their professional career than their male counterparts.

Religiosity and Immanent Justice Reasoning: A Replication Study in Japan and the U.S.

AbstractPrevious studies have investigated the importance of religiosity in enhancing peopleʼs justice reasoning, yet the findings have been limited to the Western culture, where a majority of people believe in Christianity. In order to investigate the effect of cultural difference and of religiosity on immanent justice reasoning, we compared and contrasted the degree of engagement in immanent justice reasoning regarding someoneʼs misfortune among American Christians, Japanese Buddhists, and nonreligious participants in the two cultures. The analysis found that among Americans, those who believed in Christianity engaged in stronger immanent justice reasoning toward an unfortunate person with lower moral values than did participants without a particular faith. The Japanese, on the other hand, showed stronger immanent justice reasoning for people with lower moral values, regardless of their faith. In addition, when the person had low moral value, the Japanese tended to engage in such reasoning more strongly than did Americans. Our results showed that religious beliefs may contribute to strengthening engagement in immanent justice reasoning in the Western culture, but such a generalization may not be accurate in other cultures.

Development of a model of diversity, equity and inclusion for sport volunteers: an examination of the experiences of diverse volunteers for a national sport governing body

ABSTRACT This study explores the meaning of inclusion among Black, Brown and Indigenous Persons of Color (BIPOC) and LGBTQI+ volunteers of a national sport governing body. The study situates itself within socio-ecological and critical race theories to (a) examine the experience of inclusion (or lack thereof) for minoritized volunteers and (b) identify hindrances and enablers of inclusion. Volunteers perform essential roles within sport organizations, and increased diversity, equity, and inclusion is central for justice and performance reasons. However, limited research exists which critically examines the experience of volunteers from traditionally underrepresented populations. This study seeks to fill that gap. Improving diversity and inclusion within NGBs is not only likely to improve organizational performance, but also addresses issues of good governance and social justice. Semi-structured interviews coupled with narrative inquiry were employed to collect and analyze data. Findings suggest that volunteers experienced inclusion, or lack thereof, across four layered systems – personal, interpersonal, organizational and community. Within those layers, we identified the following subthemes: unique experience and viewpoint, personal responsibility, assimilation (individual); political/social capital, mentors (interpersonal); required commitment, inclusion not embedded in organizational cultural (organizational); implicit bias, microaggressions (community). From this model, we suggest characteristics of inclusive and non-inclusive organizations across a continuum of inclusion. Furthermore, the presented model fills a gap in existing literature and provides guidelines and specific actionable areas for organizations to develop environments that are more inclusive.

Is It Morally Legitimate to Punish the Late Stage Demented for Their Past Crimes?

Are we justified in keeping the demented in prison for crimes they committed when they were still healthy? The answer to this question is an issue of considerable practical importance. The problem arises in cases where very aged criminals exhibit symptoms of dementia while serving their sentence. In these cases, one may wonder whether lodging these criminals in penal institutions rather than in normal caretaking facilities is justifiable. In this paper, I argue that there are justificatory reasons for punishing the demented for their past crimes. In part 2, I examine three theories of punishment—retributivism, prevention theories and expressivism—with regard to the question of whether they provide justificatory reasons for punishing the demented. I argue that only expressivism provides these reasons. In part 3, I defend the view that expressivism, though not convincing as a general theory of punishment, is plausible if applied only to a specific subclass of punitive actions. More precisely, expressivism, or so I argue, is plausible with regard to those acts of punishment that consist in intending to inflict suffering without actually inflicting suffering. Since the punishment of demented patients falls within this class, it can be justified on an expressivist basis. In part 4, I discuss six objections to my view and rebut them.

Quiet Resistance: The Value of Personal Defiance

What reason does one have to resist oppression? The reasons that most easily come to mind are those having to do with justice—reasons that arise from commitments to human equality and the common good. In this paper, I argue that there are also reasons of love—reasons that arise from personal attachments to specific people, projects, or activities. I defend a distinctive form of resistance that is characteristically undertaken for reasons of love, which I call Quiet Resistance. Contrary to theories that build reasons of justice into the definition of resistance, I argue that we have strong reason to consider Quiet Resistance a genuine form of resistance. Finally, I argue that the reasons in favor of engaging in Quiet Resistance help to explain its distinctive value. In short, when one engages in Quiet Resistance, one’s actions are valuable in large part because they allow one to maintain respect for one’s personal values and meaning in life under oppressive conditions.

Playing by its own rules? A quantitative empirical analysis of justificatory legal reasoning in the registered trade mark case law of the European Court of Justice

This article offers fresh insights into the legal reasoning of the European Court of Justice, using systematic content analysis to explore newly gathered quantitative data on the justificatory reasoning in the Court’s judgments on registered trade mark law. Using a broad sample of trade mark preliminary rulings dating from 1996 to 2018, the analysis tests empirically how far the Court’s interpretative practices in fact conform to its own articulated standards for the interpretation of EU laws. The analysis shows that the Court has departed from those standards in a substantial portion of trade mark judgments, in circumstances suggesting strategic omission of modes of reasoning conflicting with the Court’s preferred interpretation. This raises questions over the transparency of the Court’s judgments as a public statement of its private reasoning, and the extent to which the Court’s stated approach to legal reasoning in fact constrains its interpretative discretion.

Scienza e coscienza ai tempi dell’emergenza sanitaria da Covid-19

SOMMARIO: 1. Il dilemma etico ai tempi della pandemia da Covid-19 -2. Le Raccomandazioni di etica clinica della SIIARTI del 6 marzo 2020 - 3. I criteri selettivi di accesso ai reparti di terapia intensiva in Svizzera, Quebec (Canada) e Alabama (USA) - 4. Triage in emergenza pandemica. Possibile contrasto di alcuni criteri selettivi con i valori religiosi ed etici del personale sanitario -5. Emergenza sanitaria e “clausola di coscienza” in Italia. Science and at the time of the Covid-19 health emergency ABASTRACT: The Covid-19 pandemic crisis and the saturation of the intensive care wards have made it necessary to prepare patient selection criteria in case of lack of available places. The spread of various selective criteria, in different regulatory realities, starting in Italy from the Ethical Recommendations of the SIIARTI (Italian Society of Anaesthesia, Analgesia, Resuscitation and Intensive Care) of March 6, 2020, as well as for reasons of distributive justice and appropriate allocation of limited health resources, was also necessary to relieve medical staff from part of the responsibility in the choices to be made, sometimes particularly onerous. The rationale behind the medicine of catastrophes documents, however, may conflict with the ethical values of medical personnel, undoubtedly capable of influencing their professional choices. The present contribution aims to verify the configurability of a space within which to give prominence, even in emergency conditions, to the ethical-religious beliefs of health personnel, in accordance with the rules of medical and nursing ethics that allow the individual operator to invoke the conscience clause to justify the refusal of services considered contrary to their or their technical-scientific beliefs, even in cases not recognized by laws that expressly provide for conscientious objection.

Nudging for others' sake: An ethical analysis of the legitimacy of nudging healthcare workers to accept influenza immunization.

A core idea underlying nudging is that it helps individuals to achieve their own goals, yet many nudges actually aim at collective goals or specifically target the benefit of others. An example is nudging healthcare workers to be vaccinated against influenza. I distinguish between self‐regarding nudges, which primarily benefit the nudgee, and other‐regarding nudges, which mainly benefit others, and argue that the default justificatory reason to legitimize self‐regarding nudges, namely the ‘as judged by themselves’ standard, does not apply and that we need to look for other justifications. I examine several possible moral justifications to support strong other‐regarding nudges, namely beneficence, the harm principle and solidarity.

Facing mass extinction, it is prudent to decolonise lands & laws: a philosophical essay on respecting jurisdiction

ABSTRACT The drivers of mass extinction today are societal processes (including economic and legal systems) inherited from European imperialism and embedded in the international state system. Their path dependencies demand that we engage in decolonial work. This work centrally involves countering land abstraction – the rendering instrumental of lands, waters, and skies for the sake of national territory, capitalist profit, or industrial resource use. Much Indigenous law is centred on moral relations with lands, internalising ‘ecological reflexivity’ within Indigenous society in highly articulated ways not present in the social memory of nation states. Prudential reasons thus support decolonising Indigenous lands, making room for the sovereignty and jurisdiction of Indigenous law. Such reasons are not exclusive but rather add to already evident reasons of justice in support of Indigenous decolonisation which have for some time been urgent calls for concern. This paper provides new reasoning for decolonisation concerning the practical relations between the disestablishment of our inherited colonial order and the curtailment of now alarming rates of extinction threatening the current order of life on this Earth.

Disability, Society, and Personal Transformation

The social model of disability claims that disadvantage from disability is primarily a result of the social response to bodily difference. Social modellers typically draw two normative conclusions: first, that society has a responsibility to address disability disadvantage as a matter of justice, not charity; second, that the appropriate way of addressing this disadvantage is to change social institutions themselves, to better fit for bodily difference, rather than to normalize bodies to fit existing institutions. This paper offers a qualified defense of both inferences. Social institutions have reasons of justice to fix disability disadvantage, because the choice of institutions that contingently favor those whose bodies are statistically typical incurs responsibilities to compensate those who disfavored, in that choice. Among other things, this responsibility implies that societies should not simultaneously materially disadvantage disabled people, and also withhold symbolic resources, by demanding a presumption in favor of personal transformation – thereby, undermining the social conditions for disability pride.