Fair and impartial treatment or judgment; the quality of treating all people equally without bias or favoritism.
Archaic compound of 'even' (equal, fair) + 'hand' (control, power). Evolved from the metaphor that a fair ruler or judge has a steady, balanced hand that weighs all sides equally before deciding.
The phrase 'even hand' appears in Shakespeare and older legal documents—the idea was that true justice comes from someone whose hand doesn't shake or favor one side, literally balancing the scales.
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