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What is the difference between distributive and commutative justice: A one minute guide

Updated Friday, 30 August 2019
What are distributive and commutative justice? What do the terms mean, and how are they different? We've got a really simple guide...

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Aristotle said there were two types of justice
Distributive justice - how wealth work rights and so on are shared fairly within a community
Commutative justice - members of a group are treated equally - for example, by the law
But each society or group will have its own ideas about what is just or a right, and these ideas will be a source of debate and conflict between and within different groups in society

This basic explanation of how Aritsototle's concepts of distributive justice and commutative justice are different is based on part of the free course Rights & Justice in International Relations, where the ideas are discussed in greater depth.

 

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