vivere necesse est, te vivere non necesse est [It is necessary that the people live, it is not necessary that you live.] Law apportions to the individual what is his due as a member of the people (des Volkes), and, indeed, for the sake of the people. That is the meaning of the legal maxim “suum cuique” [“to each his own.”]. The reader will notice the influence on Sohm of philosophers such as Hegel and Heinrich von Treitschke. The passage quoted is truly remarkable in that it comes from a book on Roman private law where the approach to law was very different. Extract from the prologue toTripertitum opus iuris consuetinarii inclyti regni Hungariae: per magistrum Stephanum de Werbewcz personalis presentie regie maiestatis locum tenetem(first published in Latin in):39 APPENDIX I I I On law: and and the divisions of law § ... But private law is a separate law which pertains to the advantage of individual persons. And that law is of three kinds, namely natural law, law of nations (ius gentium) and civil law. §. Therefore, natural law is the common law of all nations, on that account that it exists everywhere by the instinct of nature, and not by any legislation, which nature teaches and taught all animals. And this belongs not only to humankind, but even to all animals. Thence comes the joining of male and female: the procreation and bringing up of children, the one liberty of all, and the acquisition of those that are captured in the sky, on earth, and in the sea. Likewise the restitution of a thing that has been deposited, or of money that has been lent: and the repelling by force of a neighbor’s violence. For this, or if anything is similar, is never unjust, but is considered natural and fair. §. Likewise, natural law is understood in another way. Whatever is contained in the Mosaic law and in the Gospels, by which one is commanded to do for another what one wishes to be done to oneself, and is prohibited to 39 The translation is my own but I was much helped by the draft translation made in the Department of Medieval Studies at the Central European University by James Bak, De Lloyd J. Guth and Peter Banyo, in anticipation of future publication of the complete text of the Tripertitum.
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