Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 5, 2024

Internal Justice and External Justice of Juristic Acts

(Abstract)

Yang Daixiong

Theory of justice needs to go beyond the dichotomy between distributive justice and corrective justice, and to be restructured at the general level and specified or re-systematized in particular areas. As far as the theory of justice in the field of juristic acts is concerned, it is necessary to distinguish between internal justice and external justice. The basic path to the fulfillment of internal justice is the protection of negative freedom, and the auxiliary path is the protection of positive freedom, the protection of trust, the principle of fairness and the principle of good faith. The concept of cause, which is based on the theory of corrective justice, is not conducive to the realization of internal justice of juristic acts, and its explanatory power with regard to the validity of juristic acts is not as great as that of the theory of declaration of will. Distributive justice, while it has a place in the system of juristic acts, can be absorbed by the protection of positive freedom in the internal justice. The external justice of juristic acts is the overall justice of the legal order, which is based on the values of security, order and good customs. Focusing on the fundamental attributes of juristic acts, internal justice takes precedence over external justice, so that the normative carrier of external justice intervenes in the juristic acts from a modest position, and may not negate the validity of the juristic acts unless it is necessary.