What is social justice? In Theories of Justice Brian Barry provides a systematic and detailed analysis of two kinds of answers. One is that justice arises from a sense of the advantage to everyone of having constraints on the pursuit of self-interest. The other answer connects the idea of justice with that of impartiality. Though the first book of a trilogy, and "Theories of Justice and " stands alone and constitutes a major contribution to the debate about social justice that began in 1971 with Rawls's and "A Theory of Justice. and "