Justice in Depth
The Sword Is Upright and Double Edged
She holds the scales in her left hand and a raised sword in her right, and the sword is vertical, double edged, and pointing up. It cuts both directions. That is not decoration, it is the card's thesis: a standard that applies to you as well as to the person you want it applied to. Unlike most depictions of the figure elsewhere, she is not blindfolded. She looks straight out of the card at the reader.
She sits between two grey pillars with a purple veil behind her, so there is no scenery, nothing to distract from the decision. A small square clasp fastens her red robe, and one white shoe just shows beneath the hem. Red for action in the world, white for what stays clean underneath. She is Libra in the Golden Dawn scheme, and the balance in question is real rather than sentimental.
By Position
As advice, Justice asks for honesty about your own contribution before you make your case. It also favors formality: get it in writing, use the proper channel, keep the records. In a present position it frequently means a matter is genuinely under review, whether by an institution or by someone whose opinion of you is being revised.
In an outcome position it is one of the more literal cards in the deck. Legal matters, contracts, settlements, and official decisions resolve according to the facts as they can be proven. In a past position it usually marks a decision whose consequences you are currently living inside.
Pairs That Sharpen It
With the Emperor the reading becomes institutional and often literally legal. With the Seven of Swords, something dishonest is about to be discovered, and the order of the cards tells you whether it already has been. With the Ten of Swords, a matter concludes decisively and not in the querent's favor.
With the Two of Swords, a decision is being avoided that Justice says must be made on the merits. With the Wheel of Fortune the consequences arriving are ones you set in motion some time ago.
Fairness Versus Accuracy
The common misread is expecting Justice to deliver what feels fair. She delivers what follows. Cause and effect, terms as written, the actual balance rather than the deserved one. People who draw this card hoping for vindication sometimes get an accounting they did not want.
She is also not a card of mercy. That belongs elsewhere in the deck, with Temperance and the Star. If a reading needs softness, Justice is not where it comes from, and it is more useful to say so plainly than to warm the card up into something it is not. Read as reflection rather than as a forecast of any legal result.