Justice as a Virtue - Justice as a Principle in Adam Smith's Thought

The paper deals with the character of justice in Adam Smith's thought. Justice is considered both as a virtue, different from all other virtues for its enforceability; and as a principle on which all the systems of law should be grounded. Smith could not achieve his project of writing a theory of jurisprudence, but some parts of his thought have been analyzed under different points of view: the political "paradigms" of civic humanism and natural law; the dilemma about property, whether it existed by nature of by human convention; the equality/inequality of distribution; the way in which the labouring poor could improve their lot without infringing the rich's rights. Classical influences and modern considerations are interwoven in Smith's writings.