Vol. 13 (2024)
Precedent in EU Law: The Linguistic Aspect

Forum: Comments and Reviews

A Brief Etymology of Law

Published 30.07.2024

  • Emilio Abiusi

Emilio Abiusi
University of British Columbia (Peter A. Allard School of Law)

Abstract

The English language of the law is marked by an absence. For centuries the words different cultures use for ‘law’ have had a dyadic nature, consisting of both Lex and Ius. Lex encompasses imposed law, and Ius cultural norms and principles of justice. English, however, separates the ideas of Lex and Ius into the words law and rights; leaving Ius absent from the single idea contained in the word law. In this paper, I explore the etymology of the words for law across historical languages and cultures, including Akkadian, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French, and German. I then ask why English chose this etymological path compared to its linguistic contemporaries. From this inquiry, I argue that the organic interaction of Lex and Ius forms a culture’s macro understanding of ‘The Law’. I conclude by considering whether the absence of Ius in English leads to confusion, and ultimately a shallower conception of the law than is present in other Western legal languages.

Cite as: Abiusi, JLL 13 (2024), F1–F23, DOI: 10.14762/jll.2024.F01

Keywords

law, legal theory, language, legal etymology

PDF

References

  1. Avalon Project at the Yale Law School (n. d.): The Code of Hammurabi. Available at yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/medieval/hammenu.htm (accessed 2 December 2022).
  2. Bergmann, Eugen (1953). Codex Ḫammurabi: Textus Primigenius. Rome: Pontificium Institutum Biblicum.
  3. Black, Jeremy, George, Andrew, Postgate, Nicholas & Breckwoldt, Tina (2000). A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian. 2nd Edition. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
  4. Dedović, Boban (2021): Electronic Hammurabi: A Digital Version of the Law Code of Hammurabi. (OMNIKA Foundation, last updated July 30, 2022). Available at ehammurabi.com (accessed 2 December 2022).
  5. Goody, Jack (1986). The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society. Cambridge: University Press.
  6. Harper, Robert Francis (1904). The Code of Hammurabi King of Babylon. About 2250 B.c. Autographed Text Transliteration Translation Glossary Index of Subjects Lists of Proper Names Signs Numuerals. Chicago: University Press; Callaghan & Co.
  7. Huehnergard, John (2011). A Grammar of Akkadian. 3rd Edition. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns.
  8. King, L. W. (2007). The Code of Hammurabi. NuVision Publications.
  9. Kramer, Samuel N. (1954). Ur-Nammu Law Code: Who Was Its Author? Orientalia, 23(1), 40–51.
  10. Leick, Gwendolyn (2002). A Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology. London: Routledge.
  11. Roth, Martha T. (1995). Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. Writings from the Ancient World, vol. 6. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature.
  12. Steele, Francis Rue (1948). The Code of Lipit-Ishtar. American Journal of Archaeology, 52(3), 425–450. DOI: 10.2307/500438.
  13. Van de Mieroop, Marc (1999). Cuneiform Texts and the Writing of History. London: Routledge.
  14. Brown, Francis (1996). The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon: with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic. Coded with the Numbering System from Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers.
  15. Chinitz, Jacob (2005). Ten Terms in the Torah for Teaching Commandments and Laws. Jewish Bible Quarterly, 33(2), 113–119.
  16. Sacks, Jonathan (n. d.). Tzedek: Justice and Compassion. Available at chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/2269078/jewish/Tzedek-Justice-and-Compassion.htm (accessed 21 July 2024).
  17. Strong, James (1986). Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. Nashville: Abingdon Press.
  18. Westminster Leningrad Codex. Text courtesy of www.tanach.us.
  19. Wigram, George V. (1996). The Englishman's Hebrew Concordance of the Old Testament: Coded with the Numbering System from Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. Peabody: Hendrickson Pub.
  20. Aristotle. tr Frederic G Kenyon (1891). Aristotle on the Athenian Constitution. London: G. Bell and Sons.
  21. Aristotle. ed. W. D. Ross (1957). Aristotle's Politica. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  22. Berman, Harold J. (1974). The Interaction of Law and Religion. Nashville: Abingdon Press.
  23. Freeman, Kathleen (1963). The Murder of Heroes and Other Trials from the Athenian Law Courts. New York: W.W. Norton &. Company.
  24. Homer (1919). The Odyssey. London, New York: W. Heinemann; G.P. Putnam’s sons.
  25. Liddell, Henry G. & Scott, Robert (1940). A Greek-English Lexicon. Revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones. With the assistance of Roderick McKenzie. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Available at: lsj.gr/wiki/Main_Page (accessed 21 July 2024).
  26. MacDowell, Douglas M. (1978). The Law in Classical Athens. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
  27. Rhodes, Peter J. (1991). The Athenian Code of Laws, 410‒399 B. C. The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 111, 87–100. DOI: 10.2307/631889.
  28. Smith, William (1880). A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: John Murray.
  29. Vinogradoff, Paul (1922). Outlines of Historical Jurisprudence vol. 2. The Jurisprudence of the Greek City. London: Oxford University Press.
  30. Yunis, Harvey (2000). Politics as Literature: Demosthenes and the Burden of the Athenian Past. Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics, 8(1), 97–118). Available at jstor.org/stable/20163787 (accessed 21 July 2024).
  31. Asmis, Elizabeth (2008). Cicero on Natural Law and the Laws of the State. Classical Antiquity 27(1), 1–33. DOI: 10.1525/ca.2008.27.1.1.t.
  32. Blume, Fred H., Frier, Bruce W., Connolly, Serena & Kearley, Timothy (2016). The Codex of Justinian: A New Annotated Translation, with Parallel Latin and Greek Text Based on a Translation by Justice Fred H. Blume. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  33. Cicero (1928). On the Republic. On the Laws. Translated by Clinton W. Keyes. Loeb Classical Library 213. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  34. (1889). Latin text M. Tullius Cicero. Librorum de Re Publica. Leipzig: C. F. W. Mueller Teubner.
  35. Cicero (1842). Treatise on the Laws. tr. Francis Barham. London: Edmund Spettigue.
  36. (1879). A Latin Dictionary. Founded on Andrews’ edition of Freund’s Latin dictionary. Revised, enlarged, and in great part rewritten by. Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  37. McDonald, A. H. (1939). The History of Rome and Italy in the Second Century B.C. Cambridge Historical Journal, 6(2), 124–146. Available at: jstor.org/stable/3020713?seq=1 (accessed 21 July 2024).
  38. Mousourakis, George (2015). Roman Law and the Origins of the Civil Law Tradition. Cham: Springer.
  39. Peck, Harry Thurston (1898). “Ius”. In Peck (Ed.), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (p. 901). New York: Harper & Brothers.
  40. du Plessis, Paul & Katz, Stanley N. (2009). The Age of Justinian: The Oxford International Encyclopedia of Legal History. Oxford: University Press.
  41. Smith, William & Hall, Theophilus D. (1871). A Copious and Critical English-Latin Dictionary. New York, Cincinnati, Chicago: Harper & Brothers.
  42. Virgil (1981). The Aeneid of Virgil. Toronto; New York: Bantam Books.
  43. Aquinas, Thomas (1981). Summa Theologica. Vol. 4. Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province. Westminster: Christian Classics.
  44. King, Paul David (1972). Law and Society in the Visigothic Kingdom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  45. O'Callaghan, Joseph F. (1975). A History of Medieval Spain. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
  46. Saint Augustine (1947). De libero arbitrio voluntatis, tr. Carroll Mason Sparrow. Richmond: The Dietz press.
  47. Scott, Samuel P. (1910). The Visigothic Code (Forum Judicum). Boston: Boston Book Company.
  48. Webster, Leslie & Brown, Michelle (1997). The Transformation of the Roman World Ad 400‒900. London: British Museum Press.
  49. Zeumer, Karl & Werminghoff, Albert (1902). Leges Visigothorum. Hannoverae et Lipsiae: Impensis Bibiopolii Hahniani.
  50. Bach, L. (1998). Civil Law: Introduction to the Study of Law, Natural Persons, Family Property, Obligations, Security, vol. 1, 13th edition, Paris: Sirey.
  51. Bridge, Frank H. S. (1994). The Council of Europe French-English Legal Dictionary. Strasbourg: Council of Europe Press.
  52. (1804). Code civil des français. Édition originale et seule officielle. Paris: Imprimerie de la République.
  53. Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften & Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften (Eds.) (1914). Deutsches Rechtswörterbuch. Wörterbuch der älteren deutschen Rechtssprache. Weimar: Böhlau.
  54. France (1827). The Code Napoleo : Or the French Civil Code. Literally Translated from the Original and Official Edition Published at Paris in 1804. London: William Benning. Available at: oll-resources.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/oll3/store/titles/2353/CivilCode_1566_Bk.pdf (accessed 26 July 2024).
  55. Black, Henry C. & Garner, Bryan A. (2009). Black's Law Dictionary. St. Paul: West.
  56. Douglas, Harper (n. d.). Etymology of droit. Online Etymology Dictionary. Available at: etymonline.com/word/droit (accessed 2 December 2022).
  57. Allan, Trevor R. S. (1998). Rule of law (Rechtsstaat). Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Taylor and Francis.
  58. Bryen, Ari Z. (2013). Violence in Roman Egypt: A Study in Legal Interpretation. Philadelphia: University Press.
  59. Cover, Robert M., Sarat, Austin, Ryan, Michael & Minow, Martha (1993). Narrative Violence and the Law: The Essays of Robert Cover. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
  60. Douglas, Harper (n. d.). Etymology of law. Online Etymology Dictionary. Available at: etymonline.com/word/law (accessed 21 November 2022).
  61. Etxabe, Julen (2019). A Cultural History of Law in Antiquity. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
  62. Etxabe, Julen (2013). The Experience of Tragic Judgment. London: Routledge.
  63. Etxabe, Julen(2022). The Dialogical Language of Law. Osgoode Hall Law Journal, 59(2), 429–515. DOI: 10.60082/2817-5069.3783.
  64. Geertz, Clifford (1983). Local Knowledge: Further Essays in Interpretive Anthropology. New York: Basic Books.
  65. White, James B. (1973). The Legal Imagination. Boston: Little Brown.