ABSTRACT
Impartial justice and fairness are not by nature things that are going to please people generally and conduce to the happiness of all or most. Justice and fairness are important socio-political virtues in their own right. Fairness, to reemphasize, requires commitment to what is impersonal and impartial. In theory, to be sure, other principles of allocation different from strict fairness are also possible, and some of them seem to have appeal and merit. The ensuing discussion will investigate the credentials of abstract fairness—that is, claim proportionality—to serve as a salient operative principle of just allocation. Some distributive-justice theorists think that claims-proportionate fairness is problematic or even inappropriate in situations of deficit and excess—of shortfalls and windfalls—and that these cases call for special and extraordinary measures. In various circumstances many or most people may prefer to depart from strict fairness. Some theorists suggest that the problem of a surplus—a “windfall” creates problems for claim-proportionality fairness.
