HOW IUS (RIGHT) BECAME DISTINGUISHED FROM LEX (LAW): TWO EARLY EPISODES IN THE STORY

This article examines two early episodes in the long and complex history of the development of distinctions between two Latin nouns, `ius' and 'lex', the primary meaning of both of which was originally 'law'. The first episode is the development of a distinction between a legal usage of the Roman Jurists and a philosophical usage extending from Cicero. According to the former usage, 'ius' is the more theoretically fundamental (and general) term; according to the latter usage, it is lex that undergirds ius. The second episode considered in the essay is the reconciliation of these two usages by Thomas Aquinas, who follows Cicero in theoretically privileging 'lex', while officially limiting the signification of `ius' by identifying it with 'iustum' (what is just). The article concludes with consideration of post-Aquinian developments that eventually led to Thomas Hobbes's claim that lex (law) and ius (right) are antithetical.