Intentions and the Justice of Lotteries

In this article, I critique an account of the justice of lotteries developed by Peter Stone. Stone's account can be properly understood as the impartiality principle, a principle demanding that the agent responsible for allocating indivisible goods among equally strong claims should not intend to favor one claim over another on the basis of invalid reasons. It aims to provide an explanation as to why the use of lotteries in decisionmaking is a just way for resolving indeterminacy among equal claims. I argue that the impartiality principle is neither sufficient nor necessary to account for the justice of lotteries.