Justice as Fairness is the phrase used by the philosopher John Rawls to refer to his distinctive theory of justice. It is also the title of an essay on the subject written in 1958. Justice as Fairness consists of two principles: First, each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive basic liberty compatible with similar liberty for others.

Second, "Social and economic inequalities are to satisfy two conditions: (a) They are to be attached to positions and offices open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity; and (b), they are to be to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged members of society." The first of these two principles is known as the equal liberty principle. The second principle is split into two parts; the first, known as fair equality of opportunity, asserts that justice should not benefit those with advantageous social contingencies; while the second, reflecting the idea that inequality is only justified if it is to the advantage of those who are less well-off, is known as the difference principle. Rawls argues that the two principles would be chosen by representative parties in the original position — a thought experiment in which the parties are to choose among principles of justice to order the basic structure of society from behind a veil of ignorance — depriving the representatives of information about the particular characteristics (such as wealth and natural abilities) of the parties that they represent.

Justice as Fairness is developed by Rawls in his now classic book, A Theory of Justice. Rawls' first principle of equal liberty asserts that the foremost goal of Justice should be to maximize the basic liberties for each individual. In addition, Rawls gives this principle lexical priority over any other virtue or principle.

Rawls defends this by further asserting that the products of these liberties, self-respect and the means to set life goals, have lexical priority over other interests.

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