In Plato’s philosophy, a clear-cut distinction must be made between his thinking about justice and his ideas about law.
Justice meant in Plato’s eyes that “a man should do his work in the station of life to which he was called by his capacities.”
Every member of the society has his specific functions and should confine his activity to the proper discharge of these functions. Each citizen must fully discharge the duties which have been assigned to him by the government, according to his capabilities and qualifications.
In The Republic, Plato realized that even in his ideal commonwealth disputes will arise which must be decided by the public authorities. In deciding such controversies, the judges of state should have a large amount of discretion. Plato does not wish them to be bound by fixed and rigid rules embodied in a code of laws.
The state of The Republic is an executive state, governed by the free intelligence of the best men rather than by the rule of law. Justice is to be administered “without law”.
Law said in The Statesman cannot prescribe with perfect accuracy what is good and right for each member of the community at any one time. And a simple, however, can never be applied to a state of things which is the reverse of simple.
While the “non-law” state was still upheld by him an the highest and most perfect type of government, Plato admitted that is effective operation required men of the highest wisdom an infallibility of judgment. Since such men could only rarely be found, he proposed the ‘law state’ as the second best alternative for the governance of man.