Justice is a basic element of social life. It is a central moral standard in human affairs that involves the necessity of "assuring that each person receives what she or he is due" (Cohen 1986, p. 1). Distributive justice is in the eye of the beholder, and debate usually surrounds the questions of what each person is due and what principles and procedures should be used to decide this. These differences not only occur among persons and social categories within a society but also vary across time and across cultures. A range of competing principles—rights or entitlements, equality of outcomes, equality of opportunity, equity or proportionality of rewards, and the satisfaction of basic needs—are prevalent standards of justice in most realms of social existence. These principles compete for recognition and application in human affairs, and there is considerable interest in this subject among philosophers, social and...