The scales and the sword
A seated figure holds an upright sword in one hand and a set of balanced scales in the other, between two pillars with a curtain drawn behind. Both objects matter. The scales weigh, and the sword cuts, and the tradition insists on the pair rather than either alone. Weighing without the capacity to act is passivity, and the sword without the scales is force. Older readers make a point of the sword being single edged and held upright, ready rather than swinging.
Unlike most figures in the deck this one faces forward with both eyes open. The blindfold that western courthouse statues wear is absent here, which is a deliberate difference. This is not impartiality by refusing to look. It is judgement made by looking directly at what happened. The curtain behind the pillars hides whatever the figure has already seen, and the tradition leaves it hidden.
Upright and reversed
Upright, the meaning is cause and effect applied without sentiment. Consequence, fairness and truth are the keywords, and the sentiment clause is the important one. The card does not say the outcome will suit you. It says the outcome follows from what was actually done, which in a difficult question is often the least comfortable thing on the table.
Reversed, the tradition offers two readings that need separating. One is a reckoning avoided, the consequence deferred or dodged rather than cancelled. The other is a judgement made on incomplete evidence, which is where bias belongs, someone deciding before the weighing is finished. What tells them apart is who holds the position in your question. If you are the one being weighed, the reversal usually reads as evasion. If you are the one weighing, it usually reads as deciding too early.
Its place in the sequence
Justice is the eleventh trump in the Rider Waite Smith ordering, sitting between the Wheel of Fortune and the Hanged Man. Older decks put Justice at eight and Strength at eleven, and the swap made by the Golden Dawn was done to fit the zodiac correspondences. Your deck almost certainly uses the newer arrangement, but the older one is not an error.
The neighbours are the reason the position is worth knowing. The Wheel is chance, the turn that owes you nothing. Justice immediately after it is the claim that not everything is chance, that some outcomes are earned. The Hanged Man follows with a deliberate suspension, a decision to stop and see differently, which reads as the response to a judgement that has landed.
Air, Libra, and what it asks you
The element is air and the sign is Libra, in the Golden Dawn correspondences that most modern decks inherit. Air is the suit of thought, argument and distinction, and Libra is the sign of the scales, so the fit here is tighter than for many cards. It reinforces the reading as something assessed rather than felt.
The honest note is that this site treats a reading as a prompt for thinking rather than a source of information about the future. Justice does not tell you how a matter will be decided. The question it puts is whether you would accept the outcome if the weighing were done properly and included the parts you have been leaving out. That is a question about your own account of events, and you are the only person able to answer it.
Questions people ask about this
What does the Justice card mean?
Cause and effect applied without sentiment, with consequence, fairness and truth as the keywords. It describes an outcome that follows from what was actually done rather than from what was intended.
What does Justice reversed mean?
Either a reckoning that is being avoided, or a judgement reached on incomplete evidence. Which one applies usually depends on whether the question puts you in the position of the judged or the judge.
Is Justice number eight or eleven?
Both orderings exist. The Rider Waite Smith deck numbers it eleven and Strength eight, reversing the older arrangement to fit the zodiac correspondences. Neither numbering is wrong, and most modern decks follow the newer one.
Which sign is Justice linked to?
Libra, with air as the element, under the Golden Dawn system carried by most contemporary decks. The scales in the image and the scales of the sign make this one of the more transparent correspondences in the deck.
Does Justice mean a court case?
It can be read that way when the question is about a legal matter, and readers often do. Outside that context it usually describes consequence in a broader sense, which is the meaning the card carries on its own.
Why is the figure not blindfolded?
The blindfold belongs to the courthouse statue rather than to the tarot image. The tradition reads the open eyes as judgement made by looking directly at what happened, rather than impartiality achieved by refusing to look.