The Forms of Justice

Abstract

The Constitution establishes the structure of government. It creates the agencies of government, describes their functions, and determines their relationships. The Constitution also identifies the values that will inform and limit this governmental structure. The values that we find in our Constitution - liberty, equality, due process, freedom of speech, no establishment of religion, property, no impairments of the obligation of contract, security of the person, no cruel and unusual punishment - are ambiguous. They are capable of a great number of different meanings. They often conflict. There is a need - a constitutional need - to give them specific meaning, to give them operational content, and, where there is a conflict, to set priorities. All of us, both as individuals and