Abstract

The modern definition of “justice” is too narrow compared with the famous Roman classical notion of iustitia (synonym for justness), presented as the constant will “granting everyone his”. Ancient thinkers coupled the concept of justice with natural law, which, unfortunately, modern legal theory has almost lost.

The study notes that the “justice” concept appeared in Ancient Greece during the VI – II centuries BC in the philosophy of Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics. Plato already contrasted such an understanding of justice as the will to “give each his own” with the will based on the power of the strong. In the first century BC, Cicero stated that justice is emerging from natural law, based not on fear and strength but on the natural principles of love, friendship, trust and consent that unite people. Since these principles do not apply equally at diverse levels (in the family, between friends, between trade partners, between fellow citizens, between foreigners, etc.), these principles do not operate in the same way, then the main task of justice is honestly (honeste) allocate to each his own. The Roman lawyer and philosopher argues that human laws that reject iustitia naturalis lead to lawlessness and the collapse of society. Objecting to Carneades, who argued that natural justice is stupidity, and real civil justice is based on protecting the benefit, utility (utilitas) of the strongest, Cicero argues that without mutual love, trust and friendship, the general benefit of society as a whole, based on the fundamental concept of honesty (honestum), suffers. The Roman classical jurists and Justinian compilers adopted these principles in the famous definition of iustitia.

Unfortunately, modern positivism, in its extreme manifestation of “pure law”, has abandoned the ideas of “natural justice”, separating the principles of morality based on nature, that is, customary law, as a centuries-old practice of regulating relations in society, has significantly weakened the principles of natural unity of people in societies of all levels, including the international human community.