Commutative Theory of Justice

Commutative justice deals centrally with fairness in the exchange of goods and fair participation for buyers and sellers in the system of exchanging goods for payment. Theories of commutative justice articulate the content, processes, social relationships, antecedents, consequences, and boundaries of systems that provide buyers and sellers with fair participation in the exchanges of goods for payment.

Justice is the attribute of being fair to what is properly merited by facts, reasons, and principles. Commutation describes systems of exchange the economy is a commutative system in which goods are exchanged for payment in a marketplace of buyers and sellers. There is much debate, however, about the content of commutative systems that deserve to be labeled as just. Sellers with significant market power over buyers, for example, ...