among a
number of individuals each one receives that which, in a way, is his
own.

Reply Obj. 3: The act of distributing the goods of the community,
belongs to none but those who exercise authority over those goods;
and yet distributive justice is also in the subjects to whom those
goods are distributed in so far as they are contented by a just
distribution. Moreover distribution of common goods is sometimes made
not to the state but to the members of a family, and such
distribution can be made by authority of a private individual.

Reply Obj. 4: Movement takes its species from the term
_whereunto._ Hence it belongs to legal justice to direct to the common
good those matters which concern private individuals: whereas on the
contrary it belongs to particular justice to direct the common good to
particular individuals by way of distribution.

Reply Obj. 5: Distributive and commutative justice differ not
only in respect of unity and multitude, but also in respect of
different kinds of due: because common property is due to an
individual in one way, and his personal property in another way.
_______________________

SECOND ARTICLE [II-II, Q. 61, Art. 2]

Whether the Mean Is to Be Observed in the Same Way in Distributive As
in Commutative Justice?

Objection 1: It would seem that the mean in distributive justice is
to be observed in the same way as in commutative justice. For each of
these is a kind of particular justice, as stated above (A. 1). Now
the mean is taken in the same way in all the parts of temperance or
fortitude. Therefore the mean should also be observed in the same way
in both distributive and commutative justice.

Obj. 2: Further, the form of a moral virtue consists in observing the
mean which is determined in accordance with reason. Since, then, one
virtue has one form, it seems that the mean for both should be the
same.

Obj. 3: Further, in order to observe the mean in distributive justice
we have to consider the various deserts of persons. Now a person's
deserts are considered also in commutative justice, for instance, in
punishments; thus a man who strikes a prince is punished more than
one who strikes a private individual. Therefore the mean is observed
in the same way in both kinds of justice.

_On the contrary,_ The Philosopher says (Ethic. v, 3, 4) that the
mean in distributive justice is observed according to "geometrical
proportion," whereas in commutative justice it follows "arithmetic