The idea of justice regulates the use of force, and so is intrinsically linked
with the idea of law. To say that something is unjust is by that very fact in
the common understanding to say that it should be forbidden by law.

Because of their relevance to the topic of this chapter, we shall repeat
here some observations made in previous chapters. All laws threaten to
punish, and to do so physically. ¹ To make a law is to threaten to punish by
the use of physical force, by means of the police, handcuffs, prison, and
possibly death, those who break the law. A fine is no exception to this, for
if a person refuses to pay the fine he may be taken forcibly to jail. Law can
never be merely an educational tool, or a gentle suggestion. It is precisely
because laws threaten punishment that justice must be enforced by law.
The idea of punishment is inseparable from the idea of law and from the
idea of justice.

The question as to what is just and unjust, and what laws to make
and what to rescind, then, is inescapably a question about punishment. It
can be formulated as the question: Who ought to be punished?

In general terms there can be only one answer to this question: those
who deserve punishment. A law which punishes people who do not
deserve punishment is universally felt to be unjust and intolerable. We
quoted earlier the forceful statement of F. H. Bradley on this subject, but
we take the liberty of repeating it here:

Punishment is punishment only when it is deserved. We pay the penalty
because we owe it, and for no other reason; and if punishment is inflicted for
any other reason than because it is merited by wrong, it is a gross immorality,
a crying injustice, an abominable crime, and not what it pretends to be.

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