Legal Definitions - injustice

Injustice refers to a situation or action that is fundamentally unfair, violating principles of fairness, equality, or deservedness. It occurs when someone is treated wrongly, or when a system operates in a way that produces an unfair outcome, often infringing upon rights or established norms of equitable treatment.

Here are some examples illustrating injustice:

• Imagine a scenario where a local government consistently approves permits for new businesses only in already prosperous areas, while denying similar applications from entrepreneurs in economically struggling neighborhoods. This creates an injustice because it perpetuates economic disparity and denies equal opportunity for growth and development to all parts of the community, regardless of merit or need, leading to an unfair state of affairs.

• Consider a situation where an individual is fired from their job without cause, despite having an excellent performance record and no prior disciplinary issues, while other employees with documented performance problems are retained. This constitutes an injustice because the individual has been treated unfairly and arbitrarily, without a justifiable reason, violating principles of fair employment practices through an unjust act.

• Think about a school system where students from certain demographic backgrounds are consistently assigned to lower-track classes, regardless of their academic potential or test scores, while students from other backgrounds are automatically placed in advanced courses. This represents an injustice as it creates an unfair educational pathway based on factors other than individual ability, limiting opportunities and perpetuating inequality within the system, thus creating an unjust state of affairs.