Abstract
The relationship between power and justice has long occupied a central position in legal and political philosophy, traditionally framed within assumptions of neutrality, fairness, and moral objectivity. However, this paper interrogated whether justice is indeed an independent normative ideal or whether it is fundamentally shaped by underlying structures of power. Drawing on the philosophical insights of Michel Foucault, the paper argued that justice is not autonomous but is constructed through historically contingent and institutionally mediated power relations. Through an analytical engagement with Foucault’s concepts of power/knowledge, discipline, and the production of truth, the paper established how legal systems function not merely as neutral arbiters but as active sites in the creation and reinforcement of normative orders. The paper defended the position that law operates as both an instrument and an expression of power, thereby shaping what societies recognize as just. While engaging competing perspectives from Thomas Hobbes, John Rawls, Ronald Dworkin, and Lon L. Fuller, the study critically evaluated whether justice can resist power or merely be reconfigured within it. The findings showed that justice, rather than being eliminated, is continually reconstructed through dynamic power relations embedded in legal and social institutions. The paper concluded that the task of legal philosophy is not to detach justice from power but to interrogate and reshape the conditions under which justice is produced. It recommended a critical rethinking of legal neutrality, particularly in contemporary contexts marked by surveillance, governance complexities, and institutional authority, with specific relevance to developing democracies.
Keywords: Power, Justice, Law, Michel Foucault, Political Philosophy
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21217062
Elijah O. Okpanachi PhD
Department of Philosophy,
Federal University of Lafia, Lafia.
https://orcid.org/0009-0004-
6780-0165
08037550889
Lubem Agishi
Department of General Studies,
Federal Polytechnic, Wannune.
Pro Bono Lecturer,
Department of Philosophy
Federal University of Lafia, Lafia
lubemagishi@fedpolywannune.e
du.ng
lubemagishi@gmail.com
https://orcid.org/0009-0006-
2003-6715
08070452224 | 08129838811
Copyright © [2026] The Author(s). Published by the Journal of People and Worldviews (JPW). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are properly credited.