udeleslig

Udeleslig is a term used in discussions of distributive justice to describe a resource or outcome that cannot be fairly distributed among members of a group using any standard rule without invoking an additional normative framework. By design, udeleslig points to a gap between intuitive notions of fairness—such as equality, need, or contribution—and the mathematical or procedural rules available to implement them in practice.

The word is formed from a negation prefix and a form related to shareable or allocable in several Scandinavian languages, highlighting its status as “not readily shareable” under conventional schemes. Its use is mostly theoretical and occasional in comparative discussions.

In normative literature, labeling a situation udeleslig signals that selection of a distribution method will depend on value judgments, such as priority rules, lotteries, or negotiated trade-offs, rather than on a single criterion. It is used to analyze cases where no procedure yields universally satisfactory results for all participants.

As an illustration, imagine a limited resource with highly conflicting preferences across individuals and diminishing marginal utility. Any attempt to divide the resource equally may leave some participants dissatisfied, while alternative rules could privilege certain outcomes and be seen as unfair. In such cases, the situation can be described as udeleslig.

See also: fair division, distributive justice, indivisibility, resource allocation.