JUSTICE

AND

SLAVERY

JUSTICE

The most serious offenses are punished with slavery in Utopia.

In Utopian opinion if the offender works he’s more useful than dead. It is shameful and unbecoming make fun of someone who is considered different because it has a defect that did not have the power to prevent.

The Utopians also not limited to curb crime and to punish offenders, but, in contrast, can enhance men deserving, that stimulate honesty and are rich in virtue. Lawyers are not considered, because, doing as mediators between men and the judges, could change the reality as they please; why citizens turn directly to the courts. Because of this, in Utopia there are few laws that are understood by all, and that every man should know. The virtues of the Utopians have convinced their neighbors that are free and independent and to ask them to be governed by a magistrate.

For the welfare of the state it depends mainly on traditions of judges and most of the time arise corruption and factionalism.

These two evils break the bonds of justice, the most important part of a company. The Utopians call those allies that are chosen as judges and friends who have benefited from their help. As for the treaties, the Utopians do not make it with anyone, because they are convinced that in that part of the world treaties and pacts between sovereign respected come very rarely, unlike in Europe where there's faith and worship of Christ where treaties are considered holy and inviolable. In the lands of the New World rather more ceremonious and more treaties are solemn and trying to find a single flaw to break them. Probably it is the little faith in the word that brings Utopians not to make treaties, because they believe that if the treaties were respected negatively affect traditions. For this reason we are opposed to considering the next enemy even if no threat, because the relationship between the men should not be tied or bound by treaties, but should be much stronger.

DISTRIBUTIVE AND COMMUTATIVE JUSTICE

Aristotle argues that the "distributive justice" is to "give to each his own," according to the proportion, or "according to the same ratio that is mutually between individual contributions", while the "commutative justice or regulatory" hinges on concept of equality between individuals, to the extent that tends to repair the damage done, regardless of the differences among the same individuals.

COMMUTATIVE JUSTICE

Commutative justice presides over the contracts, which may be voluntary or involuntary: voluntary contracts are the purchase, sale, mortgage, deposit, renting, etc. Some are fraudulent contracts involuntary, such as theft, poisoning , betrayal, false testimony; others are violent, such as beatings, murder, robbery, injury etc. Commutative justice is corrective: aims to balance the advantages and disadvantages between the two parts. Contracts involuntary punishment inflicted on the guilty must be proportionate to the damage he caused. This justice is thus similar to an arithmetical proportion.

AMBROGIO LORENZETTI

As in More’s Utopia, the fresco “the good government” by A. Lorenzetti compares a bad government to what should be a good government. The utopia, therefore, represents an ideal model to follow and contains a warning to be always present to the government of Siena and to its citizens.

The fresco wants to be an invitation to reflect on what governing does for the common welfare, celebrating the importance of a Good Government based on the principle of social Justice.

The fresco compares the good government on the left to the bad government on the right.

Considering the fresco as a whole, we can split it up into three horizontal bands. The lower one represents the life and the participation of people, the central one the government of the city which needs the help of all the virtues, the highest one means that the human virtues may not be enough if they aren’t vivified by the ones that refers to God, that are the three theological virtues and the Wisdom.

The most important part of the fresco is the part on the left. In fact, we can see the image of a woman holding a scale with two dishes in balance. It is the image of Justice, which suggests the need to “give to each one his own” , without any discount. Above the dishes there are two phrases which indicate the partition of justice according to the aristotelian tradition. Looking at the dish on the right we notice the scene of the commutative justice, which involves equity of exchanges. Then, in the dish on the left we can see the scene of the distributive justice, which consists on rewarding the good people and on punishing the wicked.

SLAVERY

The only men who become slaves are those who have committed serious crimes or those who are sentenced to death in other countries.

Most of them are imported at low prices, and are forced to work continuously in chains; others, the ones who come from Utopia, are treated harder because, although they have received the teaching of virtue, they haven't been able to stand their impulses out; the remaining is made up of men who voluntarily decide to become slaves.

EUTANASIA

Slaves have the task of hepling the sick, especially the ones with terminally ills.

The sick affected by serious diseases, that cause them pain, can consult priest and judges and decide whether to continue their harm.

If they want to proceed with the death, that action would be considered religious and holy, because recommended by the priests, who are representatives of God.