Conceptos y definiciones

2. Justice applies to virtue, which is its genus as well as one of the principles of this art, and justice also applies to equality. These principles combine with the principles and rules as shown in the eighth part of this book where we deal with mixture; and justice applies to virtue and equality according to the way they combine with the sequence of principles and rules. Particulars apply to their universals in compliance with their universal conditions. Now, to shed more light on justice we want to combine it with the principles and rules of this art.

3. Justice is a habit with which the just act justly. Because goodness is a reason for good to do good, it is just for good to do good; and thus, when it acts, it acts well and justly, which shows that justice arises from the reason of goodness. Here, the intellect realizes that justice arises when its act arises and that goodness disposes justice inasmuch as it is a reason for good to do good.

4. Greatness is that because of which goodness, duration etc. are great, so that greatness is a great disposition of justice, goodness and duration, and if good does good that is great and durable etc. then justice is a great habit made of goodness, greatness, duration etc. Here, the intellect sees the process through which justice connects to its principles and how it arises from them.

5. As goodness, greatness etc. are durable through duration, so is justice durable through duration, so long as injury does not intervene. Here, the intellect sees the process whereby the habit of justice continues to exist even while a man is exercising some other virtue, or while he is asleep. Thus, the intellect is moral and practical.

6. Goodness is a reason on account of which good does good, and greatness disposes goodness to be great, duration disposes it to be durable, power is a reason that enables good to exist and to do good, and justice is disposed to participate in this action, so that when good does good, justice arises and is moved from power into act.

7. Justice is intelligible to the intellect and loved by the will, so that the intellect and the will objectify justice; as justice arises the acts of justice remain in potentiality; now justice is governed by duration, power etc. And truth, goodness and greatness dispose justice to be intelligible and lovable, given that truth is intelligible and all good is lovable, and when justice is understood and loved with the dispositions of goodness, truth, greatness etc. it is then brought from potentiality into act.

8. Justice is a virtue belonging to the genus of virtue that comprises many virtues. As goodness, greatness etc. together give rise to virtue, so does justice arise by the same process that general virtue arises from. Here, the intellect recognizes the process by which particulars are ruled and directed by their universals. Legislators should be glad to know this, for it is an infallible rule general to all legislation.

9. There can be no justice without truth. Through its connection to truth, we can know justice by the same process whereby we know truth by combining it with the principles and rules, as shown in the previous chapter on the mixture of principles and rules. Here, the intellect realizes that justice is easy to know by means of the discourse made with truth in combination with the sequence of principles and rules.

10. Goodness, greatness etc. have enjoyment and repose in glory, which they cannot have without justice; and thus, conscience does not disturb their enjoyment because this enjoyment is just. Hence, it follows that enjoying the repose of a conscience at rest is a clear sign of justice.

11. By reason of difference, justice has two species, namely weight and proportion. Justice is intensive in weight, and extended in proportion. Hence, some cases require intensive judgment and others require extended judgment, according to how each subject of judgment is ordered and ready to receive judgment.

12. Justice arises in the concordance of the principles, and so it lives. Thus, when the concordance of all principles in one judgment is clear, justice and its conditions are also clear; for if the cause is clear, the effect is also clear.

13. Injury is the enemy of justice, because injury is a privative habit; and as concordance is friendly to the principles, justice is a positive habit. Consequently, whenever injury manifests its negative habits that deprive the principles, we recognize justice by its positive habits, for an opposite is known through its counterpart.

14. Justice means, or signifies essence; law signifies the existence of justice, and as existence sustains essence, so does law sustain justice. This shows that the judge, per se, is the efficient cause of justice, that justice is the formal principle, and that law is the material principle because law is informed by justice; ultimately, judgment is the final principle when repose is found in judgment.

15. Justice mediates between the plaintiff and the defendant, while the judge gives to each party its lawful due by reason of justice; and justice cannot mediate without judging, nor can it mediate without bonifying, magnifying etc. so as to combine judgment with goodness, greatness etc.

16. The end purpose of justice is in the repose of the principles, for there can be no repose without justice. Hence, it follows that justice is an ultimate subject in which the principles are

at peace, and with which the judge establishes peace between the plaintiff and the defendant by giving to each his due.

17. Justice is greater in substance than by accident. Hence, it follows that its major majority is substantial and its major minority is accidental: the major majority exists with major goodness, greatness etc. and the major minority exists with minor goodness, greatness etc. Therefore, in adjudicating cases, a judge must recognize which justice is major or minor, based on his knowledge of substantial and accidental justice. This knowledge is most necessary for making findings, for justice may in some cases stand substantially on the side of the plaintiff and accidentally on the side of the defendant, or vice-versa, as we see in the comparison of subsistence to well-being, where subsistence implies necessity whereas well- being implies contingency. Here, the intellect realizes that necessity does not abide by any law.

18. Equality is a habit of justice, and equality is more general than justice. Hence, as we said earlier, we treat justice in the same way as we treated equality in the treatise on the principles. Here, the intellect sees that it is good and equitable to render to each one his due with goodness, greatness etc.

19. In legal cases, one instance of justice is minor as compared to another, and minor justice is more distant than major justice from the greatness of goodness, duration etc.. Here, the intellect sees that a judge in his judgments of various cases can recognize minor justice by the minor goodness, greatness etc. that accompany it.