“Just” is a useful and slippery term.
It can be an intensifier (“Just stop it!”) or a synonym for “fair-minded” (“He’s a just man, but a pain to deal with”).
“Just” can often sound dismissive – as in “It was just one of those things.”
Consider this example:
“Adjudicators are just people and they mark candidates accordingly.”
Two problems:
1) does “just” mean “righteous” or “equitable”?
2) if “just” is an intensifier – which is the more likely possibility here – is there a suggestion that “adjudicators” should be MORE than “people”?
3) (but who’s counting?) …perhaps this is a transfer error from Slovenian.
Clearer:
“Adjudicators are ONLY HUMAN and they mark candidates accordingly.”
All Language Notes of the Week are available at:
http://www2.arnes.si/~bjason/LNW.pdf