Justice

Justice is the sovereign act of the victim that closes the moral debt that harm made. The victim can close the debt by collection: retribution, which mirrors the harm back to the offender, in proportion. Or the victim can close the debt by voluntary release: forgiveness. Both erase guilt. Restitution repairs the material damage. Together with retribution, restitution is the punishment that erases guilt, and the collection or release of the victim closes the moral debt. Justice requires a real victim. Without a victim there is no debt, and without a debt there is no thing to close. Justice is not revenge, because revenge goes above proportion. Justice is not control, because control makes new victims. A punisher who acts for a victim is a proxy for Justice. The legitimacy of the punisher stops where the mandate of the victim stops. When the offender destroyed the victim, as in murder, no proxy is possible, and no one can give a mandate. Then the moral debt becomes permanent. No one can close the guilt of the offender, and the offender loses their claim to reciprocity.