Justice and Law
Law should serve justice and be applied fairly.
While preferring virtue to law, Confucianism recognizes law's necessity. Laws should be just, clear, and fairly applied. However, laws alone cannot create a good society; virtue must accompany them.
If you govern by laws and regulations and keep order by punishments, the people will avoid punishment but have no sense of shame.
Law without virtue is insufficient.
Analects
Written about in
- What Confucianism says about leading others
The same tradition concedes that law is necessary, only insufficient. Rules should be clear and applied fairly; they simply cannot manufacture the shame that makes a person behave the same way unobserved.