FIRST MERTTENS LECTURE ON WAR AND PEACE JUSTICE AMONG NATIONS BY
HORACE G. ALEXANDER, M. A. LECTURER ON INTERNATIONAL LAW AND
POLITICS AT WOODBROOKE, SBLLY OAK, BIRMINGHAM Published ly Leonard
Virginia Woolf at The Hogarth Press, 52 Tavistock Square, London W.
C. i 1927 Printed in Great Britain by NEIIX Co., LTD., EDINBURGH,
PREFATORY NOTE THE Merttens Peace Lectures were founded in 1926 by
Frederick Merttens of Rugby. They are delivered annually and
circulated in book form. JUSTICE AMONG NATIONS THE thesis of my
lecture Is this Much of the evil we suffer in the world to-day
arises from a false conception of the nature of justice. I want to
consider, then, what justice really is what is its value for us in
the modern world and, especi ally, how it can be applied to our
international problems. I. THE IDEA OF JUSTICE Justice would seem
to be one of those terms that are applicable only in a state of
society in which men are conscious of their social relation ships,
and give thought to them. It is, in fact, a concept of political
philosophy and of political science, and it can hardly be said to
exist outside these bounds. I do not propose, at any rate, to
consider how universally or how variably the idea of justice may
lurk in the minds of primi tive peoples, but to confine myself to
what we commonly regard as civilised society. The classic
discussion of justice is in Platos Republic. There let us begin our
modern dis cussion. At the beginning of the dialogue we are given a
definition of justice that is attributed to Simonides The
restoration to each of what is 7 JUSTICE AMONG NATIONS due to him.
55 Socrates finds this a fair definition, but much depends on the
word due. Is it just to dogood to good men and evil to bad men
Socrates thinks not, for the latter process will only make the bad
men worse. He utterly re jects the view of the cynical
Thrasyrnachus, that justice is a fine name given by the strong to
their coercion of the weak and, responding to the appeal of Glaucon
and Adeimantus, he tries to show that the practice of justice, even
when unrecognised, gives truer happiness than a mere reputation for
justice. In attempting to prove this, Socrates comes back to the
view that justice is to be found in a community where those best
fitted to rule, those who understand best and care most for the
good of the community, are entrusted with authority, where all
other members of the community perform the functions for which they
are best suited, and where all have their essential needs
satisfied. Justice is established, in fact, in a harmonious
community and the most important element in such a community must
be the philo sophic rulers who, knowing that wisdom is more to be
desired than honour or wealth, find their happiness in serving the
community, without looking for any reward other than what they find
in their work, but with the added hope of gratitude from men and
the assurance of peace after death. Socrates, in effect, seems to
put great emphasis on the active side of the original definition,
and little on the passive. The important thing is that the rulers,
or Guardians, should have the knowledge 8 JUSTICE AMONG NATIONS and
will to serve the community, not that every member of the community
should have the right to insist on being served. We shall not find
justice by demanding what we conceive to be our due but by devoting
ourselves to restoring to others what isdue to them. Turning from
Greece to Judaea, we find that some of the Hebrew prophets had
almost the same thought of justice. The word translated right
eousness in the Old and New Testaments is, in the Greek text, the
same word that is elsewhere commonly translated as justice. It is a
word suggesting conformity to Gods law. Whereas Plato was thinking
chiefly in terms of human society a harmony of man with man the pro
phets of Israel put first the thought of harmony between man and
God. But they were in no sense otherworldly...
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