Bracton: Thorne Edition: English. Volume 2, Page 24

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Volume 2, Page 24

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[001] senses. For it is sometimes used for the ars boni et aequi itself, or for the written body
[002] of jus. It is called the art of what is fair and just, of which we are deservedly called
[003] the priests, for we worship justice and administer sacred rights.¹⁸ ¹⁹Jus is sometimes
[004] used for natural law which is always fair and right; sometimes for the civil
[005] law only; sometimes for praetorian law only; sometimes for that which results
[006] from a judgment, for the praetor is said to do jus even²⁰ when he does it unjustly,
[007] the word referring not to what he in fact did but what he ought to do. Jus is sometimes
[008] used for the place in which law is administered, sometimes for the tie of
[009] personal connexion, as when we speak of the jus cognationis or affinitatis. Jus is
[010] sometimes used for an action, sometimes for an obligation, sometimes for an
[011] inheritance, as for the proprietas of a thing, sometimes for the possession of goods.
[012] Sometimes it signifies potestas, as when it is said ‘He is sui juris.’ Sometimes it
[013] stands for law in all its rigor, as when we distinguish between law and equity.²¹
[014] ²²Jus is [here] put for the art as such, not for everything contained within it, for not
[015] all jus enjoins since some permits. Or it is here used for all the jus that enjoins, [for
[016] all the jus that enjoins enjoins] us to live virtuously, to harm no one and to give each
[017] his right.²³

Addicio.

[019] ²⁴<[Rights are of various kinds],²⁵ for there is proprietary right and possessory
[020] right: possessory right, as of fee, where the assise of mortdancestor is applicable;
[021] and as of free tenement, as where one holds only for life, no matter in what way.
[022] Proprietary right is termed the mere right. Thus one may well have both. The
[023] proprietary right may sometimes be separated from the possessory, for immediately
[024] after the death of his ancestor the proprietas descends to the nearer heir, whether
[025] he is a minor or of full age, a male or a female, a madman or a fool, as an idiot,
[026] one who is deaf and dumb, present or absent, ignorant of the matter or apprised
[027] of it.²⁶ Possession, however, is not at once acquired by such persons, though
[028] possession and the possessory right ought always to follow the proprietas.²⁷ The
[029] possessory right may descend by itself to other persons and through other degrees,
[030] as where, when the proprietary right descends to the eldest brother, the nearer heir,

Notes

19-21. Ibid., no. 5

20. ‘etiam’ for ‘et,’ as Azo

22-23. Azo, Summa Inst. 1.1, no. 9. Azo is explaining the use of the word ‘jus’ in the tria praecepta iuris: infra 25, n. 9; Br. and Azo, 31

24. Supra i, 115-16 (full collation), 333, 372; Br. and Azo, 25, 27, 31, 33

25. As infra iv, 350-51, where this passage appears again

26. Infra iv, 177

27. Infra 184