Morals of the Church
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Article — Prümmer, Manuale Theologiae Moralis

Article II. On The Integral Parts Of Justice

72.

72. St. Thomas enumerates two quasi-integral parts of justice, namely to do good and to decline from evil, not indeed under a general aspect, but under the special ratio of debt toward another.

The Angelic Doctor writes to the matter:147 "If we speak of good and evil in common, to do good and to avoid evil pertains to every virtue, and according to this they cannot be posited as parts of justice, unless perhaps justice is taken insofar as it is every virtue: although even justice accepted in this way regards a certain special ratio of good, insofar namely as it is owed in order to divine or human law. But justice, according as it is a special virtue, regards good under the ratio of debt to one's neighbor; and according to this it pertains to special justice to do good under the ratio of debt in comparison to one's neighbor, and to avoid the opposite evil, namely that which is harmful to one's neighbor. But to general justice it pertains to do the good owed in order to the community and to God, and to avoid the opposite evil. But these two are called parts of general or special justice, as it were integral parts, because each of them is required for the perfect act of justice. For it pertains to justice to establish equality in those things which are toward another, as is clear from the things said above.... But someone establishes the equality of justice by doing good, i.e. by rendering to another what is owed to him; but he preserves the equality of justice already established by declining from evil, i.e. by inflicting no harm upon his neighbor." - From these things it follows that the act of restoring another's good unjustly taken and the act of repairing damage caused, which are sometimes enumerated as acts of justice, are reduced to the act of declining from evil inflicted upon one's neighbor.

Some modern authors enumerate as integral parts of justice constitutive justice, which bestows upon each what is his own, and restitutive justice, which repairs injured justice.

147 L. c. q. 79, a. 1.

Justice as a Virtue and Its Parts