Taking Poetic Justice Seriously
Viewing poetic justice as a genuine form of justice runs against the philosophical grain. Its near absence from contemporary moral and political philosophy, despite the vast literature on justice, suggests it is not taken seriously. Leading theorists have denied or at least neglected its status as a moral category. At the heart of this skepticism lies an agential conception of justice: the view that justice applies only to outcomes produced by agency. This paper challenges that condition, distinguishing between reasons of justice (agent-focused) and the value of justice (state of affairs focused).
Recognizing the justness of poetic justice also helps explain its “poetic” quality: such cases are aesthetically compelling because they reveal a nexus of moral value and causation, suggesting an ordered moral universe—an enduring aspirational ideal across traditions. Finally, taking poetic justice seriously may also provide some insights for justice-seeking institutions.
*This lecture is eligible for 1.25hrs of LSBC CPD credit.
Speaker
Professor Ori Herstein holds the Montesquieu Chair for Comparative Law and Legal History and serves as the Vice Dean for Curriculum at the Faculty of Law at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He also holds the position of honorary visiting professor at the law school of King's College London, where he previously served as a permanent faculty member for over a decade. Finally, Professor Herstein is the incoming Co-editor-in-Chief of the journal Law and Philosophy, and is scheduled to spend a year as a Fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (Berlin Institute for Advanced Study).
Professor Herstein teaches and writes on rights theory, tort law, private law theory, the philosophy of procedure, and various other topics in legal and moral philosophy. His publications have appeared in a variety of leading publications in philosophy and in law, such as The Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Legal Theory, Law and Philosophy, The University of Toronto Law Journal, Philosophical Studies, Philosophers' Imprint, the Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy, The George Washington Law Review, and Mind.
In the past, Professor Herstein served as a visiting professor at the law schools of Harvard University, Cornell University, Columbia University, and Peking University. He was also the director of the Harry and Michael Sacher Institute for Legislative Research and Comparative Law at the Hebrew University and served as the editor of the Jerusalem Review of Legal Studies. Professor Herstein has a master's degree and a doctorate (under the guidance of Professor Joseph Raz) from Columbia University in New York, and undergraduate degrees in law and philosophy from Tel Aviv University.
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