Glossary

"In its strictest sense, the expression "common law" refers to the first of the three main traditional branches of English law, the other two being equity and stature law. Common law here means a law common to the different regions of the kingdom, a law that, before the courts, must always prevail over particular usage or customs, and that is the indissoluble basis of the authority of the king over all his subjects with the advantages of a single system of justice. Common law is first and foremost a customary, unwritten law (lex non scripta), whose authority is tied to its immemorial nature. It is also a scholarly law, whose fundamental rules prohibit any arbitrary modification, and the knowledge of which is acquired through a long and patient study of precedents. But common law is not only an original "legal system": it is also the foundation of the English political regime, insofar as it provides the basis for understanding the power and domains of the different political institutions." 

CASSIN, Barbara, Emily APTER, Jacques LEZRA a Michael WOOD, ed. Dictionary of Untranslatables: A Philosophical Lexicon: A one-of-a-kind reference to the international vocabulary of the humanities. 1. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014. ISBN 9780691138701, p. 553.

"In English law, "equity" refers to one of the three fundamental sources of law (along with common law and statute law): the Court of Chancery can judge "in equity" and thereby protect rights that have not been recognized by ordinary courts (which have to follow the common law rigorously). The English term "equity" sometimes designates the classical philosophical notion (Aristotle´s epieikeia, and at other times a particular right, originally produced by a distinct court."

CASSIN, Barbara, Emily APTER, Jacques LEZRA a Michael WOOD, ed. Dictionary of Untranslatables: A Philosophical Lexicon: A one-of-a-kind reference to the international vocabulary of the humanities. 1. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014. ISBN 9780691138701, p. 555.

Humanitas is a set of characteristics that supposedly define what a civilized man is. Humanitas can only be preserved through exercising the human duties of solidarity, of justice, and of mercy. - cf. CASSIN, Barbara, Emily APTER, Jacques LEZRA a Michael WOOD, ed. Dictionary of Untranslatables: A Philosophical Lexicon: A one-of-a-kind reference to the international vocabulary of the humanities. 1. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014. ISBN 9780691138701, p. 651.

" "Justice" comes from the Latin justitia, itself derived from jus, which dictionaries translate either as "right" or "justice". In French, as in Latin, justice refers both to the conformity to the law; the justice one dispenses (and which constitutes in modern times one of the three branches of state power, alongside the legislative and the executive); and the sense of equity, the spirit of justice, which is bound up with morality."  Cf. CASSIN, Barbara, Emily APTER, Jacques LEZRA a Michael WOOD, ed. Dictionary of Untranslatables: A Philosophical Lexicon: A one-of-a-kind reference to the international vocabulary of the humanities. 1. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014. ISBN 9780691138701, p. 530.

"English distinguishes between "law" and "right", with each corresponding to some of the aspects of loi (Gesetz) or droit (Recht), but the extension of the concepts is not the same. "Law" has a wider extension than loi, and even if "right" partly overlaps with the polysemy of jus or of droit, the use of the term "right", in the singular and the plural, refers more often to the specific dimension of droit that the French would term droits subjectifs (subjective rights; that is, freedom, property, etc.) attached to individual or collective subjects." 

"In the continental tradition, law is both a rule and a command given by an authority empowered to enact it; more specifically, la loi refers to a certain kind of norm, established by a particular power (legislative power), and regarded as higher than that of other sources of droit (regulation, jurisprudence, and so on), in accordance with criteria that can be material or formal. In this context, the basic problem is knowing what founds the higher authority of the law, and what can stem from its intrinsic characteristics (rationality, generality, publicness, and so forth), and from the identity of the founder of the law (the sovereign)."

CASSIN, Barbara, Emily APTER, Jacques LEZRA a Michael WOOD, ed. Dictionary of Untranslatables: A Philosophical Lexicon: A one-of-a-kind reference to the international vocabulary of the humanities. 1. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014. ISBN 9780691138701, p. 551.

"English distinguishes between "law" and "right", with each corresponding to some of the aspects of loi (Gesetz) or droit (Recht), but the extension of the concepts is not the same. "Law" has a wider extension than loi, and even if "right" partly overlaps with the polysemy of jus or of droit, the use of the term "right", in the singular and the plural, refers more often to the specific dimension of droit that the French would term droits subjectifs (subjective rights; that is, freedom, property, etc.) attached to individual or collective subjects." 

"In the continental tradition, law is both a rule and a command given by an authority empowered to enact it; more specifically, la loi refers to a certain kind of norm, established by a particular power (legislative power), and regarded as higher than that of other sources of droit (regulation, jurisprudence, and so on), in accordance with criteria that can be material or formal. In this context, the basic problem is knowing what founds the higher authority of the law, and what can stem from its intrinsic characteristics (rationality, generality, publicness, and so forth), and from the identity of the founder of the law (the sovereign)."

CASSIN, Barbara, Emily APTER, Jacques LEZRA a Michael WOOD, ed. Dictionary of Untranslatables: A Philosophical Lexicon: A one-of-a-kind reference to the international vocabulary of the humanities. 1. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014. ISBN 9780691138701, p. 551.