At a meeting the other day, I heard myself say, without really thinking, "Social justice always trumps equality". This was in response to a half-hearted complaint that someone (not me) had a bigger mug of tea than everyone else. It has to be true, of course, because the calculus of needs and means should always favour need: treat everyone equally unless circumstances merit some being treated differently. I thought of this when reading about the European Court of Justice's latest judgement (on insurance and gender discrimination) which will surely affect us all. See the Economist's Bagehot and Buttonwood columns for further (witheringly scornful) comment.
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