The Humean View, Part 4 to blupete's Essay "On Judges"
Hume thought that the "grammar of justice" could be captured in three rules: the stability of possessions, their transference by consent, and the performance of promises. Incidently -- need, merit, desert, or equality are not to be taken as defining characteristics of justice. To the extent that anybody says they are then they must be corrected by reminding them that such concepts "are either impracticable [scarce goods and limited benevolence] or are incompatible with even the minimum amount of liberty that mankind can be expected to require."5
