Everybody has their own opinion of what is just, but what does that really mean? The dictionary definition of justice is fairness. Something can be unfair to one person, but fair to a society. This is what exactly was thought at the time of the McCarthy trials. The same thing happened in the play The Crucible, where there was no true evidence to determine what was fair. In my life there were times where the outcome was not just. Does justice always prevail? This means, does fairness always happen?
There are many situations in anyone's life that justice does not prevail. My brother once had to watch the dog. My parents wanted me to supervise him, but I was busy. My brother then decides to sit on the couch, and watches television. It annoyed me that he was just lounging around and doing nothing. Our dog, Jack, was running around the house. He spills a cup. My brother did not seem to notice. Jack then starts scratching windows. My brother turned up the volume of the television. Jack starts crying for food. I decided to get Jack food so he would be quieter. I was very busy that day with homework, but I decided to help Jack. My brother did not even notice me helping Jack. Then Jack needed to go to the bathroom. I asked David, but David did not want to bring Jack outside to go. I decided to take Jack outside, while David had to watch television. I watched Jack throughout the day. I felt like I had to do everything, even though this was not my responsibility. After a couple hours of taking care of Jack, my parents called and said that they are coming home. David quickly turned off the television. They praised David for doing a wonderful job of taking care of Jack, even though I did everything. I did not want to sound possessive, so ...
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...ey would have to say that someone else was guilty. This implied to 'The Crucible' and the McCarthy Trials. Many people died in both. Even though it is proven that some of the accused were actually spies in the McCarthy trials, many innocent people were dismissed from their jobs. There was an injustice here, but sometimes the right thing happened.
How do know what is just when something happens? You cannot predict the exact outcome, so you go with what you think is fair. That may not be, according to the society, the best decision. These three examples prove that there are times that justice does not always prevail. The truth is that justice will not always prevail. Sometimes people will make a wrong decision. The important part is that you always see how you can make the best outcome. Justice does not always prevail, so we can only try to make the just decision.
For example of a law that is not-just is “If a surgeon has operated with a bronze lancet on a free man for a serious injury, and has caused his death,..... his hands should be cut off. (Doc E). This law is unjust because nobody in this world if perfect and they shall not have their hands cut off for making a mistake. An example of a just law is “If a son struck a father, his hands shall be cut off.” This law is fair because it is teaching people to not strike their father. However three examples presented above of the laws are: Family laws, Property laws, and Personal-Injury law. Hammurabi’s code was just in so many
?What is left when honor is lost?? Publilius Syrus' quote, though dating from 100 B.C., still seems pertinent to our era (Quotations). Many people still feel that once integrity is lost they are nothing and many are willing to stand up to keep their integrity. Without integrity, we are nothing. During the time that Arthur Miller wrote his most famous play, The Crucible, innocent men and women are accused of having Communist leanings. Their whole lives are ruined in a short amount of time because they refuse to compromise themselves by selling out their friends. Miller tries to make a statement about these unfair trials by comparing them to the Salem witch-hunts and trials of 1692. The main protagonist of his play is a man named John Proctor who is accused of witchcraft but stands up to maintain his name and his honor, even though he is hanged for it. During the H.U.A.C. trials some took stands for their beliefs with the knowledge of possibly being shunned by society. Knowing this, instead of taking the cowards' way and giving the names of their friends, they refuse to tell the committee anything in the same way that John Proctor stands up against a court that is ruining the lives of innocent people.
By definition justice means the quality of being just or fair. The issue then stands, is justice fair for everyone? Justice is the administration of law, the act of determining rights and assigning rewards or punishments, "justice deferred is justice denied.” The terms of Justice is brought up in Henry David Thoreau’s writing, “Civil Disobedience.”
If there was a way for mankind to be unjust without any consequences, then he would be unjust. For instance, The Ring of Gyges is a fictional tale about a shepherd who took a ring from a corpse that he found after a storm. The ring gave the shepherd the ability to disappear when he turned the facet inward, but he would reappear when he turned the facet outward. When the shepherd became aware of the power of the ring he stole the kingdom by seducing the queen, and killing the king. Afterward, Glaucon made a comparison to justify what would have happened if two of the ring exist. He stated, that if one ring was giving to the just man, and the other ring giving the unjust man, they would both pursue their own self-interest. The essence of Glaucon’s story is that, if a just man had the opportunity to obtain his desires by been unjust, then he would be. Glaucon point is justice is involuntary, it is used to sustain order in society (if you do not break the law, you are more likely not to get punished).
In the Crucible, the accused were unfairly tried and convicted on limited evidence or even word of mouth from the girls.
What is justice to you. Justice is known to dictionary.com as, “the quality of being just; righteoussness, equitableness, or moral rightness”. So how do you define justice. Is it fairness or correctness, maybe it’s throwing all the bad guys in jail. In To Kill a Mockingbird and The Merchant of Venice justice is defined several times in several different ways that open to our eyes if we look through one of the character’s. When looking through a character’s eyes we must take a look at someone’s background hence absorbing their perspective and understanding their
Moral rightness and fairness are two alternate ways of saying justice. Justice is defined in a legal dictionary on law.com as “a scheme or system of law in which every person receives his/ her/its due from the system, including all rights, both natural and legal.” There are many different opinions on the law and justice systems in America, many of which are not particularly positive. Law.com also states, one problem can be found in the attorneys, judges, and legislators, as they tend to get caught up more in the procedure than actually achieving justice for the people. While others say that our law system is not interested in finding out the truth, but more criticisms can also be seen in Herman Melville’s story, “Bartleby, the Scrivener.” Melville
Justice is part of revenge; as also for revenge is part of justice. “Justice” comes from a Latin word that means “straight, fair, equal”, it’s the quality of being righteous and loyal towards one’s state, although serves the interests of the stronger (Hourani, 1962), while revenge is the act of taking retaliation for injuries or wrongs. What ever the circumstances are being the individual who experiences a unjust act, results in the hunt for one of these two things: Justice or revenge. What are the key differences between the two? Justice can be defined as the concept of moral rightness, which is based on the rules of law, fairness, ethics, and equality among the governed citizens. Revenge, on the other hand, refers to an action taken by an individual as a response to an act of injustice. The principle of revenge is “an eye for an eye”…. Can revenge be justified and be as equally part of justice if they both seek retribution for a wrongdoing?
America has committed a terrible sin. It has once decided to own people as property and deprive them of their liberties and enslaved them based on the color of their skin. The United States must repair the wounds that have resulted from the social injustice committed against the African American community. Many have argued that this must be done through reparations. However, African Americans have faced a plethora of legal complexities in attempts to obtain legal reparations for past injustices committed against their ancestors. The problem that African’s face in their attempt to obtain legal reparations stems from their historical devaluation in the American legal system. Since the days of colonial America, it was not only law that African Americans were inferior to their Anglophone whites, but also custom (Westley, 82). The prejudice of early America, which has stretched to recent days, has handicapped African American’s ability to exercise their legal rights that navigation of the legal and public complex procedures has made it impossible for them to correct social injustice and obtain reparation
Morality ivolves distinguishing which human behaviors are right or wrong and good or bad. Morality covers topics such as harm, rights and justice, and therefore it is mainly concerned with protecting every idividual. There has been a culture of war between liberals and conservatives all based upon human morality aspects (Haidt & Graham, 2007, p. 1). Cultural war can be termed as the division in personal opinions and thoughts between open-minded people or liberals and the conventional or traditionalists, also known as conservatives.
Have you ever thought about if the person next to you is a killer or a rapist? If so, what would you want from the government if the person had killed someone you know? Should they receive the death penalty? Murderers and rapists should be punished for the crimes they commit and should pay the price for their wrongdoing. Having the death penalty in our society is humane; it helps the overcrowding problem and gives relief to the families of the victims who had to go through an event such as murder.
The ideal society we would all be considered equal, but reality often defies this idealism. When we think of police officers, we think of people working hard to keep us all safe, but this may not always be the case in today 's society. This is demonstrated in an opinion piece published in the Miami Herald, entitled “Need a ‘big, bad dude’? White criminals need not apply” by Leonard Pitts Jr. The article opens by discussing the shooting of African-American man Terence Crutcher, where the police officer who shot him stated it was due to him not obeying her orders and reaching inside his SUV for a weapon. However, the video of the shooting shows that this did not happen. The article also goes on to discuss other African-Americans shot in recent
Last but not least, injustice does not provide the most good for the most number of people. Just acts spawn other just acts just like unjust acts spawn other unjust acts. If everyone behaved unjustly, mankind would return to a state of nature (everyone is for themselves) which would be very unprofitable for the unjust individual due to a decreased likelihood of survival. An action is clearly unprofitable for the unjust individual if it would eventually create a hostile environment for him. Hence, one should set an example for others by living a just life which would create a better environment for him as well as for others.
These are the words uttered by Martin Luther King Jr. as he fought for racial equality in his cell at the Birmingham County Jail. This famous quote is a perfect example of the common belief that justice is always fairness. Even though the two terms are synonymous, fairness is subjective, especially in law. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Boo Radley’s life is exemplified by the statement that “extreme justice is often extreme injustice”.
Of course I looked “justice” up in the dictionary before I started to write this paper and I didn’t find anything of interest except of course a common word in every definition, that being “fair”. This implies that justice would have something to do with being fair. I thought that if one of the things the law and legal system are about is maintaining and promoting justice and a sense of “fairness”, they might not be doing such a spiffy job. An eye for an eye is fair? No, that would be too easy, too black and white. I could cite several examples where I thought a judge’s or jury’s ruling was not fair, but I won’t because frankly, we’ve all seen those.