LEGAL STANDARDS AND IDEALS

Authors

Sir Paul Vinogradoff, The University of Oxford

Abstract

Provisions for the settling of conflicts constitute the greater part of any legal system. These conflicts are not entirely governed by self interest and the idea of ethical duty does not disappear from them: it asserts itself in the shape of the balance to be established ·by the court: while every litigant presses for the satisfaction of his own claims society is called upon to adjudicate fairly between the parties: the moral notion of justice appears as the impartial attribution of what everyone in society ought to have by right. We make distinctions between men in accordance with their greater or lesser sense of justice, but that which in individuals is present in the shape of moderation of selfish claims or admission of reciprocal claims of others, turns out to be a duty in the case of organized society.

Recommended Citation

Sir Paul Vinogradoff, LEGAL STANDARDS AND IDEALS, 23 Mich. L. Rev. 1 (1924).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol23/iss1/2