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"What on Earth are we talking about?" [2019] ELECD 810; in McIlroy, David (ed), "The End of Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 17

Book Title: The End of Law

Editor(s): McIlroy, David

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section: Chapter 2

Section Title: What on Earth are we talking about?

Number of pages: 19

Abstract/Description:

Law is the practice of issuing general or generalizable rules justified by reference to an account of justice. Such rules enable law’s subjects to know how they are expected to behave and how they can expect others to behave. Such rules discipline violence, by prohibiting the use of force in contravention of the rules and by authorising the use of force to enforce the rules. Such rules set a framework for resolving disputes. Law’s claim to refer to justice is intrinsic to those functions of law. Justice is a complex concept. Shallow justice is the justice which is immanent to a legal system, existing to the extent to which the rules are applied predictably and consistently. Deep justice describes the sense of how people deserve to be treated which underlies the rules of a legal system. True justice is objective moral order, without which justice is not justice but power.