Procedural Justice: Philosophical Perspectives

Procedural justice is a conception of justice that proposes that following certain specified procedures will result in an outcome that is just. Procedural justice typically is employed as the preferred method of settling cases in which parties disagree on the just outcome of conflicting private interests or of conflicting conceptions of the public good.

Among the philosophical issues associated with procedural justice are the clarification of types of procedures; the relation between procedures, outcomes, and related values; and, perhaps most central, the issue of whether or not justice should be conceived of as procedural in the first place. In other words, if we know what the outcome should be, as we must to assess it for its justice, why should we be bothered with procedures at ...