Legal Maxims and the Ius commune
Necessitas legem non habet
(Necessity recognizes no law)
Pseudo-Isidore (Hinschius 700-701: JK †878, Felix IV)
"Nisi pro summa necessitate contingat,
quoniam necessitas legem non habet (Unless
moved by great necessity, because necessity negates law)"
(Anselm of Lucca, 7.119, Gregory, cardinal of Crisogono, Polycarpus, 3.16.3,
Gratian, De con. D.1 c.11) and six other minor Transalpine collections; Not in
Burchard of Worms or Ivo of Chartres.
Gratian formulated the maxim in a
dictum of the first recension of his Concordia discordantium canonum (ca.
1130-1140) (C.1 q.1 dictum post capitulum 39):
"Quia enim necessitas non habet legem, set ipsa sibi facit
legem (Because necessity negates law,
but necessity itself can make law)."
Bernard of Pavia
found almost the same concept (ca. 1190) in Bede's Commentary on Mark and
placed it among his "Regulae iuris" 1 Comp.
5.37.12(X 5.41.4):
"Quod non est licitum lege, necessitas
facit licitum (What is
not licit in law, necessity makes licit)."
Huguccio, C.1
q.1 d.p.c.39, s.v. necessitas non habet legem: "Idest in necessitate
positus non subest legi, non dicitur legis esse transgressor, idest reus
transgressionis, licet aliter faciat quam precipiat lex (That
is when one is placed in a condition of necessity, one is not called a breaker
of the law, that is guilty of transgressing the law, although one may do other
than the law commands),
ut de con. di.i. Sicut non alii" [Lons-le-Saunier, Archives
departementales du Jura, 16, fol. 126r]
Bernardus Parmensis (ca. 1250),
Ordinary Gloss to X 5.41.4, s.v. necessitas: "unde tempore
necessitatis omnia sunt communia (whence
in time of necessity all things are held in common)."
Korematsu v. United States 323 U. S. 214 (1944)
"Pressing public necessity" ― "compelling governmental interest"
Rei publicae interest ne crimina remaneant impunita
Innocent III, Inauditum
(4 February, 1199):
Quia
vero graviter peccant et qui loquitur mendacium et qui subticet veritatem,
et publice interest, quod maleficia non
remaneant impunita,
magnificentiam tuam rogamus attentius per
apostolica scripta mandantes
(Since they
who speak mendaciously and subvert the truth sin gravely because it is the
public interest that crimes (maleficia)
do not remain unpunished, We call upon your magnificence through Apostolic
letters). . .
Innocent III, Pope.
Die Register Innocenz' III. 1: 1. Pontifikatsjahr, 1198/1199, Texte. Ed.
Othmar Hageneder and Anton Haidacher. Publikationen des Historischen Instituts
beim Österreichischen Kulturinstitut in Rom. Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen
Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1964. No. 546 (549), pp. 790. Po. 591
(Alanus 5.12.5; Collectio Rotomagensis 21)
| Lex Aquilia Dig. 9.2.51(52).4: "Quod si quis absurde a nobis haec constituti putaverit, cogitet longe absurdius constitui neutrum lege Aquilia teneri aut alterum potius, cum neque impunita maleficia esse oporteat nec facile constitui possit, uter potius lege teneatur, multa autem iure civili contra rationem disputandi pro utilitate communi recepta esse innumerabilibus rebus probari potest (But in case anyone might think that we have reached an absurd conclusion, let him ponder carefully how much more absurd it would be to hold that neither should be liable under the lex Aquilia or that one should be held to blame rather than the other. Misdeeds (i.e. deeds that have been performed with culpa) should not escape unpunished, and it is not easy to decide if one is more blameworthy than the other. Indeed it can be proved by innumerable examples that the civil law has accepted things for the general good that do not accord with pure logic)." |
Innocent III, Vt famae
(10 December, 1203)
Ad
primum igitur respondemus, quod cum prelati excessus corrigere debeant
subditorum
et publice utilitatis interest, ne crimina
remaneant impunita,
et per impunitatis audaciam fiant . . .
(To the first
therefore we answer that a prelate ought to correct the excesses of his
subjects. It is in the interest of the common good that crimes should not
remain unpunished as the perpetrators become bold if they remain unpunished).
Innocent III, Pope. Die Register
Innocenz' III. 6: 6. Pontifikatsjahr, 1203/1204, Texte und Indices. Ed.
Othmar Hageneder, John C. Moore, and Andrea Sommerlechner with Christoph Egger
and Herwig Weigl. Publikationen des Historischen Instituts beim Österreichischen
Kulturinstitut in Rom. Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der
Wissenschaften, 1995. No. 181 (183), pp. 301-302. Po. 2038.
On the relationship of the maxim to the use of torture, see Ken Pennington, Torture and Fear: Enemies of Justice
Alanus Anglicus, 5.12.5 (Inauditum hactenus speciem falsitatis). Vercelli, Bibl. Cap. 89, fol. 120r-120v. Gloss of Alanus to "et publice interest quod maleficia non remaneant impunita" fol. 120v: "Infra de incid. in can. Vt fame <Alan. K 5.23.2= 3 Comp. 5.21.8 (X 5.39.35)>, ff. ad leg. Aquil. Item uult [Ita uulneratus recte] § penult. <Dig. 9.2.51(52).4> ff. [C. recte] de [ade male]penis, Superioris [Si operis recte], <Cod. 9.47.14> ff. de fideius. Si a reo § Idem quod uult [uolgo recte] <Dig. 46.1.70(71).5>
Tancred, De criminibus et qualiter agitur contra criminosos (ca. 1216), edited by Richard M. Fraher, "Summula de criminibus: A New Text and a Key to the Ordo iudiciarius," Bulletin of Medieval Canon Law 9 (1979) 23-31
Incipit: Quoniam rei publice interest ut crimina non remaneant impunita . . . nota quod quattuor modis agitur de crimine . . . in modum denunciationis, inquisitionis, exceptionis, et accusationis (It is in the public interest that crimes do not remain unpunished ... Note that there are four ways of bringing a crime to justice: denunciation, inquisition, exception, and accusation).
Quod omnes tangit debet ab omnibus approbari. (VI 5.12.29)
Quod omnes tangit in the Ship Money Case (1637)
|
Justinian's Code 5.59.5.2 "Necesse est omnes suam auctoritatem praestare, ut, quod omnes similiter tangit, ab omnibus comprobetur" |