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25. Social Practice / B. Equalities / 3. Legal equality

[equality of citizens before the law]

4 ideas
Equality is not being bound in ways you cannot bind others [Kant]
     Full Idea: Our innate equality is independence from being bound by others to more than one can in turn bind them.
     From: Immanuel Kant (Metaphysics of Morals I: Doctrine of Right [1797], Div B)
     A reaction: This doesn't seem to capture the whole concept. The two of us may be unequally oppressed by a third. We are unequal with the third, but also with one another, though with no binding relationships.
Equality is where you cannot impose a legal obligation you yourself wouldn't endure [Kant]
     Full Idea: Rightful equality within a state is a relationship among citizens where no-one can put anyone else under a legal obligation without submitting simultaneously to a law which requires that he can be put under the same kind of obligation by the other person.
     From: Immanuel Kant (Perpetual Peace [1795], 2.1st n)
     A reaction: This appears only to be legal equality, rather than political or economic or social equality.
Mosaic law was the first to embody the rule of law, and equality before the law [Johnson,P]
     Full Idea: Mosaic law meant that God ruled through his laws, and since all were equally subject to the law, the system was the first to embody the double merits of the rule of law and equality before the law.
     From: Paul Johnson (The History of the Jews [1987], Pt I)
     A reaction: If this is correct, it seems to be a hugely important step, combined with Idea 1659, that revenge should be the action of a the state, not of the individual. They are the few simple and essential keys to civilization.
Marxists say justice is unneeded in the truly good community [Kymlicka]
     Full Idea: Marxists believe that justice, far from being the first virtue of social institutions, is something that the truly good community has no need for.
     From: Will Kymlicka (Contemporary Political Philosophy (1st edn) [1990], 5.1)
     A reaction: This seems to imply that in the truly good community there are nothing but truly good individuals, which is taking social determinism to its limits. Are all the citizens of a bad community inherently bad?