nyaya

In Sanskrit legal and political thought, nyaya means justice or right conduct in deciding disputes, and also a maxim or rule of reasoning (as in matsya nyaya). The Nyaya school of philosophy, founded on Gautama's Nyaya Sutras, developed methods of inference and proof used by the Mimamsa and Dharmashastra commentators in interpreting texts.

Amartya Sen, in The Idea of Justice (2009), distinguished niti (organisational propriety, just rules and institutions) from nyaya (realised justice, the actual lives people are able to lead), arguing that justice should be judged by outcomes, not only by the correctness of rules.

Example

Sen contrasts nyaya, the justice actually realised in people's lives, with niti, the justice of rules and institutions.

See also

matsya nyaya · dharma · justice · vyavahara

Read more in the study notes

• Lok Adalats and Permanent Lok Adalats (Alternative Dispute Resolution Systems)
• Recent trends: e-banking, ATMs, internet and mobile banking, smart and credit cards, and their legal aspects (Banking Law)
• Criminal procedure: meaning, background and salient features of the BNSS (Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita)
• Judgment: pronouncement, contents and orders after conviction (Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita)
• Crime: meaning, elements and stages (Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita)
• From the IPC to the BNS: background, extent and key reforms (Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita)