Jus

• Author: Jeffrey Lehman, Shirelle Phelps

Page 85

[Latin, right; justice; law; the whole body of law; also a right.] The term is used in two meanings:

Jus means law, considered in the abstract; that is, as distinguished from any specific enactment, which we call, in a general sense, the law. Or it means the law taken as a system, an aggregate, a whole. Or it may designate some one particular system or body of particular laws; as in the phrases jus civile, jus gentium, jus proetorium.

In a second sense, jus signifies a right; that is, a power, privilege, faculty, or demand inherent in one person and incident upon another; or a capacity...