Antiquity The Latin phrase relates to an old
Greek principle of
justice which translates into English as "to each his own".
Plato, in
Republic, offers the provisional definition that "justice is when everyone minds his own business, and refrains from meddling in others' affairs" (
Greek: "...τὸ τὰ αὑτοῦ πράττειν καὶ μὴ πολυπραγμονεῖν δικαιοσύνη ἐστί...", 4.433a). Everyone should do according to his abilities and capabilities, to serve the country and the society as a whole. Also, everyone should receive "his own" (e.g., rights) and not be deprived of "his own" (e.g., property) (433e). The
Roman author, orator and politician
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC – 43 BC) popularised the Latin phrase: • "
Iustitia suum cuique distribuit." ("Justice renders to everyone his due.") –
De Natura Deorum, III, 15. •
[...] ut fortitudo in laboribus periculisque cernatur, [...], iustitia in suo cuique tribuendo." (" [...] so that fortitude (courage) may be seen in hardship and danger, [...], justice in attributing to each his own".) –
De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum,
liber V, 67. The phrase appears near the beginning of
Justinian's Institutiones:
iuris praecepta sunt haec: honeste vivere, alterum non laedere,
suum cuique tribuere. (Inst. 1,1,3-4). (Translated into English: "the precepts of law are these: to live honestly, to injure no one, [and]
to give to each his own".)
Motto Suum cuique serves as the motto of the
Order of the Black Eagle (
German:
Hoher Orden vom Schwarzen Adler; founded in 1701), the highest
order of chivalry of the
Kingdom of Prussia. The motto continues in use in
Germany – in the insignia of the
military police (the
Feldjäger) and in association with the Berlin-based
Masonic Lodge,
Black Eagle Lodge (
German:
Johannisloge Zum schwarzen Adler). The common
German translation of the phrase –
Jedem das Seine – was written on the main gate of Nazi concentration camp
Buchenwald, leading to the phrase being controversial in modern Germany. The
Faculty of Advocates in
Scotland uses the motto
Suum cuique. It was also the motto of the
North Carolina Supreme Court until 1975, when it was changed to
Suum cuique tribuere. The phrase also serves as the motto of the Faculties of Law at
Lund University and
Uppsala University in Sweden, Faculty of Law at
University of Warsaw in Poland, as well as the Faculty of Law of
Federal University of Bahia in Brazil. ==In popular culture==