The Ontology of Justice: Bahá'í Perspectives on Law, Being, and Divine Order

This presentation examines the ontology of justice through Bahá'í perspectives on law, being, and divine order, contrasting them with Greek, Roman, Islamic, and modern secular traditions. While classical Greek thought conceived of justice as a cosmic principle governing all existence, later traditions confined it to human affairs. The Bahá'í writings, however, go beyond merely restoring a tragic Greek conception of justice by introducing a fundamental insight: justice is ultimately articulated by the Divine Manifestations, whose laws express the deeper structure of reality, and the achievement of which requires resolution of the rights-versus-duties dichotomy. This talk explores how Bahá’í jurisprudence reframes justice (‘adl) as a multi-dimensional, ontological reality, linking divine revelation, moral order, and the laws that govern existence itself.