Political Science · Western Political Thought
'Laws are the rules of just and unjust; nothing being reputed unjust that is not contrary to some law.' What is the best interpretation of this famous quote of Hobbes?
AJustice is following the law in letter and spirit
BJustice is dependent on laws
CJustice is contextual to laws ✓ Correct
DLaws are contextual to justice
Correct answer: (C) Justice is contextual to laws — The best reading is that justice is contextual to laws.
Explanation
★The best reading is that justice is contextual to laws.
★Hobbes means that the very idea of just and unjust exists only in relation to existing laws.
★Before law, in the state of nature, nothing is just or unjust in his view.
★Justice is therefore relative to the sovereign's law, not an absolute standard above it.
★This is a legal positivist position, tying justice to the command of the sovereign.
★Saying justice merely depends on or follows law misses the deeper point about its very meaning.
★For Hobbes there is no natural justice prior to and independent of the law.
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