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.
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