Rawls argues that the two principles would be chosen by representative parties in the original position — a thought experiment in which the parties are to choose among principles of justice to order the basic structure of society from behind a veil of ignorance — depriving the representatives of information about the particular characteristics (such as wealth and natural abilities) of the parties that they represent. Justice as Fairness is developed by Rawls in his now classic book, A Theory of Justice.

In order to overcome the inequalities of natural contingencies, Rawls argues that society should select institutions that are the most beneficial to the least advantaged people. Because Fair Equality of Opportunity has lexical priority over the difference principle, Rawls suggests that of all the possible Pareto optimal scenarios, the Just choice would be that whose lowest class is the most advantaged.

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