Equal Justice: (Clarendon Paperbacks)

This book sets forth a novel theory of distributive justice premised on the fundamental moral equality of persons.

Table of Contents:
Introduction; Part I. Equality of Fortune: The presumption in favor of equal shares; Voluntary choices and emergent inequalities; Ineluctable risks: illness and injury; Occupational preferences, effort, and desert; Unequal endowments; Gifts, bequests, and intergenerational obligations; Justice and the transfer of body parts; Part II. Corrective Justice: The problem of liability rules: the failings of wealth maximization as a normative ideal; Outline of a theory of corrective justice; Illustrations; Part III. Saving and Taking Life: Do numbers count when saving lives?; The relevance of personal characteristics to choices between lives; Killing people or animals to benefit others; Envoi; Bibliography; Index

Review :
`A provocative, well-argued, elegantly written book that will root out any complacency that a reader might have had about these eternal issues on starting it.' Howard Davies, Times Higher Education Supplement `[Rakowski's] account of an egalitarian conception of distributive justice in this outstanding book ranks alongside the pioneering work recently done in this area by writers such as John Rawls and Ronald Dworkin ... his sophisticated and humane account of justice is among the most powerful and persuasive I have read ... This is a book that deserves to beDSand no doubt will beDStaken very seriously indeed.' Roger Crisp, Journal of Medical Ethics 'It is an ambitious and demanding book that repays close reading.' H.A. Bedau, Tufts University, Review of Metaphysics, Dec '93 'Equal Justice is an exceptionally complex work ... not only does it cover a great deal of territory; not only does it range from the very abstract to the very concrete; but it is also rich in analytic detail. It is filled with subtle, ramifying arguments; Rakowski presents them carefully and is meticulous in explaining their implications ... this is one of the most original theories of justice to have been proposed in recent years, and it raises the questions that deserve careful analysis ... a rich array of arguments and insights; a deepening of our understanding of the ethics of health care; perceptive analyses of tort law, insurance schemes, and the rights of animals; and one of the finest discussions in recent years of saving and taking life - all presented in philosophical prose that is a model of clarity and precision.' William Ewald, University of California, Berkeley, California Law Review, Vol. 82:231, 1994 `Rakowski's Equal Justice is an exciting addition to the recent literature on justice ... One of the most refreshing aspects of this book is the application Rakowski makes of his theoretical framework to practical problems.' Political Studies `Itis an excellent work of political philosophy: it is comprehensive and full of ingenious and imaginative arguments amd counter-arguments.' Utilitas