ABSTRACT
This chapter clarifies the contrast between comparative and noncomparative justice, and investigates that which they might have in common, and in virtue of which the name of justice has come to apply to both. In recent years, comparative justice has received far more attention than noncomparative justice, because writers have been able to agree about its general nature. The examples of noncomparative injustices are cases of unfair punishments and rewards, merit grading, and derogatory judgments. Purer cases of noncomparative injustice are encountered in retributive contexts. Applying the distinction between comparative and noncomparative justice to the real world is not easily done. The oppositions between comparative and noncomparative principles illustrated by several examples are not radical conflicts originating in the concept of justice itself of the kind that would render the very coherence of that concept suspect. Our legal system protects persons from the harm caused by certain kinds of false judgments by permitting them to sue their defamers for damages.
