ABSTRACT
The equality principle is easy enough to apply to academic life. If political, social, or economic hierarchies are to be established in academic life, they must benefit the least well off. In Canada, all citizens have a formal right to health care, but Canadian session instructors are just as disposable as their American counterparts. The chapter argues that sessions or adjuncts have evolved into what amounts to a separate caste of educator in the United States and Canada. In both the United States and Canada, there is a huge discrepancy between the financial and political status of the warrior and worker castes, in spite of the fact that in academia, the two castes do almost identical work. John Rawls' notion of the original position and its associated veil of ignorance are intimately linked to his general notion of justice as fairness and to the equality principle.
