I believe that the Justinian maxim, on some such rendering, encapsulates the dominantconcept of justice at least in the modern period, but it is passed over in silence by Hart.However, it is endorsed in the work of Grotius, Locke, Smith, Kant and Mill as well asfiguring in Roman law and the natural law tradition.
19
In contemporary philosophy, it is endorsed both by prominent Kantians
, such as Onora O’Neill, and prominent Thomists, such
as John Finnis.
20
As the diversity of the philosophers I have mentioned plainly testifies, theadoption of the concept of justice as rights does not correlate with any underlyingphilosophical fault-lines, such as the distinction between teleological and deontologicalapproaches to morality. But it does help explain the special stringency of duties of justice, asopposed to those of charity or beneficence, because duties of the former sort are owed tosomeone in particular, who has a special standing to feel aggrieved in the event of their violation