This chapter examines the link between friendship and justice. It seeks to establish whether within friendship, there is room for one friend's recourse to justice against another. After assessing the permissibility of recourse to justice within friendship, it considers the impact of friendship on justice. The chapter is divided into two sections. The first section seeks to establish whether Aquinas agreed with the following two claims: first, that friendship in its highest form gives no occasion for the intervention of justice; and second, that the bond of friendship may give occasion for the intervention of friendship, but holds that committed friends should avoid resorting to justice against one another; they should rather endure some harm than upset peace. The second section examines Aquinas's view that the possibility of just exchanges between unequal partners requires, as a precondition, the presence of friendship. It is argued that such a view can be extricated from his theological discussion of charity as a precondition for merit.
Keywords: Aquinas, friendship, justice, just exchange, charity