La Giustizia, la spada e la bilancia

Only by disregarding history can a place be found where justice – without human involvement – can ‘give everyone is due’ (‘suum cuique tribuere’). The notion of what is ‘just’, as well as ‘unjust’, is in itself a such wide-open concept that it must be filled with specific contents. Similarly, the definition of iustitia provided by the Roman jurist Ulpian (D. 1.1.10 pr.) is a mere sort of ‘blank’ formula. His formula invokes the task of ‘suum cuique tribuere’ and hence delivers into the hands of jurists the scale required to concretely define and give everyone is due. Related to the following definition of iuris prudentia (D. 1.1.10.2), Ulpian’s definition of justice can be read as a propagandist statement aimed at legitimating the role of jurists at the service of the emperor.