3. Framing: What is distributive justice & what does it have to do with tax?

This guide to tax approaches tax from the perspective of distributive justice. Distributive justice is an approach that concerns the fair distribution of the benefits & burdens of social cooperation, such as taxation. Global justice requires that all states have the capacity to secure a just distribution of advantages between their citizens. States must, therefore, have the capacity to design their legal & economic institutions in such a way that they reflect the concepts of distributive justice. Distributional justice also means an ability to determine the size of the government budget & the level of redistribution, important elements of fiscal policy. However, many low-income countries face difficulty in raising revenue which affects their ability to pursue redistributive programmes, a core component of fiscal self-determination. This guide will outline some of the ways that this happens, & some of the policy solutions offered. 

Tax is a key tool used to redistribute resources, & so the tax policy debate is one of the few areas of law in which discussions of distributive justice are considered appropriate. Most other economic regulation is oriented towards maximisation of wealth, rather than its distribution. What is different about discussions of tax in law is that tax is a tool used after productivity has been maximised, entering afterwards to set about rearranging the wealth distribution in society.