Justice is the end of government. Madison warned that there are practical limits to the ability of human law to promote justice — and that ignoring those limits sacrifices liberty.
One of the characteristics of the great civilizations that have risen and fallen throughout history is the fact that over time they departed from their basic founding principles. Drunken by the success caused by the principles established by their forebears, later generations became blinded to actual cause and effect relationships.
The word 'justice' is used all the time to argue for legal change. On its face, it is a very impressive word that naturally carries a lot of respect, but its meaning is elusive. Before one is convinced that, in its name, a particular proposal to change the law should occur, one should ponder its meaning more carefully.
'One of the few subjects on which we all seem to agree is the need for justice. But our agreement is only seeming because we mean such different things by the same word. Whatever moral principle each of us believes in, we call justice, so we are only talking in a circle when we say that we advocate justice, unless we specify just what conception of justice we have in mind.' — Thomas Sowell
Cosmic justice refers to the perfect type of justice that only an omniscient God could render. Inherent human limitations make it impossible for us to achieve this type of justice through human law. Our human legal systems should not try to dispense cosmic justice since we do not know all the critical relevant facts.
Traditional justice is about impartial processes rather than either results or prospects. A defendant in a criminal case would be said to have received justice if the trial were conducted as it should be, under fair rules and with the judge and jury being impartial.
Madison observed in Federalist No. 51: 'Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit.' Madison appears to be warning us that there are practical limits to the ability of human law to promote justice — and that if we don't recognize those limits, we will unwisely sacrifice too much liberty.
The pursuit of 'social justice' — which often means redistributing outcomes rather than ensuring equal treatment under the law — is fundamentally different from traditional justice. It requires the government to treat people unequally in order to achieve equal outcomes, which Madison would have recognized as a form of injustice.
Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit.
No man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause, because his interest would certainly bias his judgment, and, not improbably, corrupt his integrity.