ABSTRACT
The force of justice as fairness would appear to arise from two things: the requirement that all inequalities be justified to the least advantaged, and the priority of liberty. According to the public criterion, the preeminent task of the basic structure is to protect the secure enjoyment by citizens of their basic liberties, including freedom of movement, freedom to hold personal property, bodily and psychological integrity, freedom of thought and liberty of conscience, freedom of speech and assembly, political participation, and the rule of law. The criminal statutes with strict liability are not the only restrictions of basic liberties that Rawls's theory would permit. The penal system should be arranged so as to minimize the aggregate of two kinds of hazards: dangers to citizens' basic liberties from non-compliance, which the penal system is meant to reduce, and dangers from the penal system's own wrongful encroachment upon citizens' basic liberties.
