Justice as Fairness

Justice as Fairness was the phrase used by the philosopher John Rawls to refer to his distinctive theory of justice. Justice as Fairness consisted of two principles: the liberty principle and the difference principle. Rawls argued that the two principles would be chosen by representative parties in the original position--a thought experiment in which the parties are to choose among principles of justice to order the basic structure of society from behind a veil of ignorance--depriving the representatives of information about the particular characteristics (such as wealth and natural abilities) of the parties that they represent. Justice as Fairness was developed by Rawls in his now classic book, A Theory of Justice.