And, second, the judge who imposes an oath of belief, in order to ascertain anything pertinent to his own purpose or even to the common good, commits a great offence against the conscientiousness of the party taking such an oath.This he does in regard both to the levity of mind, which he thereby helps to engender, and to the stings of conscience which a man must feel who to-day regards a subject from a certain point of view, but who will very probably to-morrow find it quite improbable from another point of view.Any one, therefore, who is compelled to take such an oath, is subjected to an injury.
Transition from the Mine and Thine in the State of Nature to the Mine and Thine in the Juridical State Generally.
41.Public Justice as Related to the Natural and the Civil State.
The juridical state is that relation of men to one another which contains the conditions under which it is alone possible for every one to obtain the right that is his due.The formal principle of the possibility of actually participating in such right, viewed in accordance with the idea of a universally legislative will, is public justice.Public justice may be considered in relation either to the possibility, or actuality, or necessity of the possession of objects- regarded as the matter of the activity of the will- according to laws.It may thus be divided into protective justice (justitia testatrix), commutative justice (justitia commutativa), and distributive justice (justitia distributiva), in the first mode of justice, the law declares merely what relation is internally right in respect of form (lex justi); in the second, it declares what is likewise externally in accord with a law in respect of the object, and what possession is rightful (lex juridica); and in the third, it declares what is right, and what is just, and to what extent, by the judgement of a court in any particular case coming under the given law.In this latter relation, the public court is called the justice of the country; and the question whether there actually is or is not such an administration of public justice may be regarded as the most important of all juridical interests.
