Abstract
Seyla Benhabib in The Claims of Culture reported the case of a young Laotian American woman abducted from her work at Fresno State University and then raped. Her assailant, a Hmong/Laotian immigrant, argued that among his tribe this behaviour is the customary way to choose a bride. He uses so-called "cultural defence" so that his conduct should be judged according to his own cultural standards, his own norms of the just and unjust. The court indeed seemed to agree in part, deciding of a relatively light sentence. This event is an institutional application of the claim "Justice depends on the identification of the individuals with their community". What has happened to Themis, pointing to the divine norm of Justice, for her daughter Dike, goddess of human law and order, enemy of falsehood, and protector of a wise administration of justice within the human community? Essentially defined as an absolute norm, justice, as relative, sounds like an oxymoron.
