What is justice, understood as a central virtue of our social (e.g., political and legal) institutions? What does justice require in the political realm and what kind of state is best suited to achieve it? Ideally, what image of the just state should regulate our behavior? How do the requirements of justice change, if they do, in non-ideal circumstances, such as in cases of noncompliance with the law or in the context of violent conflict (e.g., in war)?This course is intended to provide upper-level undergraduates and philosophy graduate students with a selective survey of important work in contemporary theory of justice that addresses such questions.prereq: 1003 or 1004 or instr consent