282 ON THE NOTIONS OF RIGHT AND JUSTICE 



MSS. published by Dr. Georg Mollat under the title, Eechts- 

 philosophisches aus Leibnizens ungedruckten Schriften (Leipzig, 

 Robolsky, 1885). 



The following statement of Leibniz may be used as a sum- 

 mary of this part of the Preface to the Codex Diplomatlcus : 

 1 In stating the elements of natural right there must be ex- 

 pounded, first, the common principles of justice, the charity of 

 the wise man ; secondly, private right or the precepts of com- 

 mutative justice, concerning what is observed among men in 

 so far as they are regarded as equal ; thirdly, public right, 

 concerning the dispensing of common goods and evils among 

 unequal people for the greatest common good in this life ; 

 fourthly, inward right, concerning universal virtue and natural 

 obligation towards God, that we may have regard to perpetual 

 happiness. To these must be added the elements of legitimate 

 human and divine right : human right both in our own 

 commonwealth and between nations, divine right in the 

 universal Church.' (De tribus juris naturae et gentium gradibus, 

 Mollat, p. 21.) 



The ideas expressed in this Preface are to a large extent 

 derived from Grotius. 



The doctrine of right, confined by nature within narrow 

 limits, has been immensely extended by the human intel- 

 lect '. I am not sure that, even after so many distinguished 

 writers have discussed them, the notions of Eight and 

 Justice may be considered sufficiently clear. Eight is a 

 certain moral power, and obligation a moral necessity 2 . 

 Now by moral I mean that which is equivalent to * natural ' 

 in a good man : for as a Koman lawyer admirably says, 

 it is not to be believed that we are capable of doing things 



1 * Medical science is the science of the pleasant, political science 

 is the science of the useful, ethical science is the science of the 

 just.' Juris et aequi elementa (Mollat, p. 23). 



2 'Nothing impossible is a duty or, as it is commonly put, of 

 impossible things there is no obligation. . . . Everything necessary 

 is permissible or, as it is commonly put, necessity has no law.' 

 De debitis et illicitis (Mollat, p. 92). 'Necessity is the avoiding of 

 misery,' which is denned as 'lasting sadness' or 'that state in 

 which the aggregate of evils preponderates over the aggregate 

 of goods.' Juris et aequi elementa (Mollat, pp. 32, 33). 



