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Law Paper 3 - Contract + Synoptic Essay's > Justice Essay > Flashcards

Justice Essay Flashcards

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1
Q

What is the general definition of justice?

A

Fairness

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2
Q

What is Chaim Perelman’s definition of justice?

A

The equal treatment of beings

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3
Q

What does Chaim Perelman’s definition of justice align with?

A

Thomas Fuller’s quote

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4
Q

What is Thomas Fuller’s quote?

A

Be you never so high, the law is above you

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5
Q

What situation backed up Thomas Fuller’s quote?

A

Princess Anne getting fined $570 for speeding

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6
Q

What does the Princess Anne situation promote?

A

Fairness and equality in society as everyone, even the royal family, are treated as equal under the law

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7
Q

What does Karl Marx define justice as only being possible through?

A

The redistribution of wealth

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8
Q

What did Karl Marx’s statement lead to?

A

Rawl developed his ideology of justice

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9
Q

What are all the theories of justice?

A

Rawl’s theory of justice
Natural law theory
Utilitarianism
Economic Analysis of Law
Nozick’s Minimal State Theory
Positivism by Kelsen

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10
Q

What is Rawl’s theory of justice?

A

It entails a social contract between individuals, the greatest equal liberty and the difference principle

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11
Q

What did Rawl state about his own theory?

A

The principle means that a system is fair even if it is uneven if it works to help those who are less fortunate

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12
Q

What is the natural law theory of justice?

A

States that there is a higher order of law and if society follows it then their laws will be just

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13
Q

What famous philosopher supported the natural law theory and what did he believe?

A

Aristotle supported this view, and believed that this law could be discovered through nature

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14
Q

Who else supported the natural law theory and what did he believe?

A

St Thomas Aquinas, believed the law is derived from God, for example, the 10 commandments

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15
Q

What did the supporters of the natural law theory believe about a law that contradicted God?

A

If a law contrasted God’s will, then it must be disregarded

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16
Q

What did the supporters of the natural law theory believe about a law that contradicted human benefit?

A

If a law contradicted human benefit/good, then it’s ‘not true law at all’

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17
Q

What is the definition of Utilitarianism?

A

The greatest happiness for the greatest number

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18
Q

What is the general principle of Utilitarianism?

A

As long as the benefit of the majority is greater than the loss of the minority then the law is just

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18
Q

What theorists wrote and supported Utilitarianism?

A

Mill
Bentham

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19
Q

What does the theory of Utilitarianism mean for society and individuals?

A

The law looks at society as a whole and disregards justice for individuals

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20
Q

What is an example of Utilitarianism in our laws now?

A

Terrorism legislation, which is an example of utilitarianism legislation, as potential terrorists are arrested before a crime is committed as the harm of letting the act play out is greater than the loss of the individual being placed into custody

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21
Q

What has the economic analysis of law done?

A

Has modified utilitarianism in a way that we are now able to measure it

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22
Q

What was Nozick’s essay called and when did he publish it?

A

Published in 1975 called ‘Anarchy, State and Utopia’

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23
Q

What is Nozick’s theory of justice called?

A

Minimal State Theory

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24
What is the minimal state theory?
For a society to be just, the state should have a minimal right to interfere in individual affairs and its jurisdiction should be basic
25
What are some examples of minimal state intervention?
Protecting the individual from force, theft and fraud and enforcing contracts
26
What else does the minimal state theory link to?
Has strong links to 18th century individualism and 19th century laissez-faire capitalism
27
What else did Nozick support?
The rights of individuals, particularly the rights to property
28
What did Nozick state about the rights of property?
The rights to property should be judged by how the property was acquired and that, if it was in a just manner, then the individual can redistribute that through society as they wish
29
What did Nozick say about the state redistribution of wealth?
The state should have no involvement in the redistribution of wealth (this heavily contradicts Marx) and that there should be no property belonging to society, only individuals
30
What is the theory of Positivism by Kelsen?
Law can be separated from what is just or morally right, but parts of law can be based on or incorporate parts of morality and justice, however it is not a necessary component, and a law should still be obeyed even if it is immoral
31
What else did Kelsen try to develop?
A pure theory of law to explain what it is instead of what it ought to be
32
What were his findings on a pure theory of law?
He found that justice is based on human preferences which in turn makes it an irrational ideal. Therefore, he stated that it is not possible to scientifically define justice
33
What did Lord Denning believe about justice and what is a drawback of this?
Judges should do everything reasonable, within their power, even changing or avoiding laws, to ensure a just result; however, this is extremely undemocratic as the changes/avoidance of legislation will affect all, and they are not elected. If his beliefs were followed then there would be justice, however, at the expense of democracy
34
What did Robert Megarry in Tito believe about justice?
Justice should be achieved through the application of law and equity
35
What does Robert Megarry's view of justice assume?
That the parliamentary law is perfect, which Zander claims is ‘irresponsible’
36
What are the 4 types of justice?
Procedural Substantive Corrective Distributive
37
What is procedural justice?
Procedural justice ensures justice through systems it puts in place, such as rules of evidence, juries, appeals and judges. However, it does not achieve justice
38
What does Miller show about procedural justice?
The rules of evidence were not always so strictly applied as shown in Miller, where intimidation was used to gain a confession
39
What is the point of juries in procedural justice?
Juries have special powers granted by the law to achieve procedural justice. However, juries can fail as in Sanders where there was racial bias
40
What are the examples of miscarriages of justice?
Birmingham 6 Sally Clarke Angela Cannings
41
Who were the Birmingham 6?
The Birmingham 6 were 6 men from Northern Ireland who were convicted of suspected IRA bombings in 2 central pubs in Birmingham
42
How long did the Birmingham 6 spend in prison?
They ended up spending 16 years in prison before getting their conviction overturned by the Court of Appeal in 1991
43
Why were the Birmingham 6 released and what did they receive
They were released on the basis of police fabrication, unreliability of scientific evidence and the suppression of evidence and they consequently received millions of pounds in compensation
44
What did multiple miscarriages of justice lead to?
The 1993 Runciman Commission and the Criminal Appeals Act 1995 which created the Criminal Cases Review Commision
45
What are some statistics from the Criminal Cases Review Commission?
From 1997 to January 2025, 86.59% of cases where applicants were in custody and 78.51% of cases where applicants were at liberty/completed
46
What were the causes of miscarriages of justice in the cases of Sally Clarke and Angela Cannings?
Multiple cot deaths as a result of their babies suffering from SIDS
47
What did Professor Meadow's state in the case of Angela Cannings?
Professor Meadow’s claimed that ‘unless proven otherwise, one cot death is a tragedy, two are suspicious and three are murder’
48
What was Angela Canning's sentence?
Cannings was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment
49
What was Sally Clarke's sentence?
Sally Clarke was also convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment of her 2 baby boys
50
Why were both Sally Clarke and Angela Canning's released?
Due to new evidence and inaccurate expert evidence both convictions got overturned by the Court of Appeal
51
What is substantive justice?
Where the application of the law provides justice
52
Where can substantive justice be seen in criminal law?
In the application of defences and appeals in criminal law R vs Howe - duress is not an applicable defence for murder and its obiter dicta said that it wouldn’t be a defence to attempted murder either R vs Gotts, a father threatened to kill his son if his son did not commit murder; clearly, the lack of defence of duress for the attempted murder did not achieve justice for the child in R vs Gotts
53
How was substantive justice not achieved in contract law previously?
Previous forms of consumer law, 100+ years ago, used to not achieve substantive justice due to the unequal bargaining powers of the 2 parties and the fact that it stuck to the principle of caveat emptor (let the buyer beware) which was significantly unfair on the weaker and more vulnerable party
54
Where is substantive justice now achieved in contract law?
The Consumer Rights Act 2015 moves away from freedom of contract and parties can imply terms like Section 9, Section 10 and Section 11. This protects the vulnerable consumer and achieves justice by having an even marketplace
55
What theory of justice does the CRA15 link to under substantive justice?
The CRA15 supports utilitarianism as the terms may hinder a firm or trader, however, it protects consumers from exploitation which is the majority. Therefore, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 achieves substantive justice in the view of utilitarianism
56
What is distributive justice and who developed it?
Distributive justice is the fair redistribution of wealth and responsibilities, which is a concept developed and supported by Karl Marx
57
Where can distributive justice be seen in law?
The National Minimum Wage Act 1996 or through the use of tax revenue to fund the NHS
58
Where does distributive justice fail?
Against large corporations such as Amazon, who used Luxembourg to avoid paying taxes
59
What is corrective justice?
When penalties or consequences are placed on individuals who commit an offence to remove any gain made by the act and to compensate for any damage caused to the victim or claimant
60
Where is corrective justice seen in law?
In tort law where the victim is compensated and put back in the position they were in before the tort occurred. This is seen regularly in Negligence cases through compensatory damages
61
What is an example of a negligence case where corrective justice failed?
Alcock where seemingly good claims were not allowed due to public policy reasons and preventing the floodgates from opening which is a utilitarianism view that results in a clash of justice. These claims failed as grandparents and brothers were unable to demonstrate a ‘close tie of love and affection’ which resulted in a lack of corrective justice
62
Where does corrective justice fail?
When dealing with racism in the law
63
What is an example of corrective justice failing due to racism in the law?
The murder of Stephen Lawrence
64
Who was Stephen Lawrence and what happened to him?
A black A-Level student in Southeast London who was murdered by a white racist gang
65
What did the police do and who let Lawrence's family down?
The police were told about suspects but did nothing and they assumed it was black on black crime over drugs which initially lost them a successful prosecution The CPS, courts and especially the police let Lawrence’s family down
66
What did the murder of Stephen Lawrence lead to?
MacPherson Report 1999
67
What did the MacPherson Report 1999 investigate?
Looked into what went wrong in the investigation and stated that the police were ‘institutionally racist’ and that racism was built into the police system and was the norm
68
What did the MacPherson Report 1999 lead to?
The Lammey Review
69
What did the Lammey Review show?
Showed that there was a high black prison population with very few working within prison
70
What review recently looked at the Met Police?
Casey Review 2023
71
What did the Casey Review 2023 find about the police?
Highlighted the issues within the met police including racism, sexism, misogyny and homophobia
72
What else is an issue surrounding the sentencing of ethnic minorities
The sentencing of ethnic minorities has always been a problem with people of ethnic minorities committing the same crime as a white person but receiving a longer sentence
73
When else should the law strive to achieve justice?
To reduce instances of social unrest and injustice
74
What is an example of a situation that caused extreme social unrest and injustice?
The murder of Mark Duggan
75
Who was Mark Duggan and what happened to him?
A black male in the Tottenham area who got killed by armed police on the false idea that he pulled a gun on them
76
What else did the police do to cover their backs after the murder of Mark Duggan?
The police then allegedly fabricated and planted evidence before stating an unbelievable explanation of how the gun got to where it was
77
What happened to the police explanation of the murder of Mark Duggan and what did it lead to?
Their theory and explanation have since been disproven by experts and there was significant unrest within the black community of Tottenham. This subsequently led to the law being disrespected and the police being hated, therefore leading to the London riots of 2011
78
What should you talk about in the conclusion of a justice essay?
The 4 main problems Progression of justice Final opinion Link back to Q
79
What are the 4 main problems for justice?
Racism Misogyny Delays A lack of funding
80
How has justice progressed recently?
Through the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and the Criminal Cases Review Commission which links to Kelsen who says that law should be obeyed whether it is just or not which mirrors the view from the Criminal Cases Review Commission
81
Are the main issues still prominent and where are they found?
The main issues regarding justice are found in procedural, substantive and corrective justice, with minimal but still some problems found in distributive justice also
82
Should the law aim to achieve justice and why?
Yes, the law should aim to achieve justice to avoid social unrest and control

Law Paper 3 - Contract + Synoptic Essay's (13 decks)

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