The Justification of the Punishment in the Justice System as Fairness

Justice thought as “fairness” is derived from John Rawls who was one of the most famous liberal political philosophers of the 20th century. Rawls in interpretation of “A Theory of justice” has not neglected the justification of punishment and has propounded his last opinions and approaches about the institution of penalties briefly. The attitude of this scholar in his famous work “A Theory of Justice” is completely different from his look which he has stated before in his article “Two Concepts of Rules”. In his latter article he tries to establish a connection between the teachings of retributivism and utilitarianism for the justification of punishment and places each of them in their proper position. It seems that the approach which Rawls has presented in “A Theory of justice” for justifying the institution of the punishment has abrogated (revoked) his former doctrine in his article “Two Concepts of Rules”. The present paper attempts to prove the validity of the mentioned attitude (idea) meanwhile determining the category of punishment in “the justice system as fairness”.