Cicero’s Views on the Understanding of Law as the Basis of Roman Legal Philosophy

Abstract

This article is devoted to the analysis of Marcus Tullius Cicero’s state-legal views on the content of law and the peculiarities of legal reality in general. The author notes that Cicero primarily bases the concepts of law and justice on the categories of belonging and duty. The key category for Cicero in terms of establishing order is nature, based on higher understanding. It is noted that Cicero distinguishes between the Greek and Roman understandings of the content of law. Thus, the philosopher notes that the Greek concept of ‘nomos’ means, first of all, the distribution among people of what belongs to whom, while the Roman ‘lex’ comes from the category of choice (behaviour options). Cicero therefore concludes that distribution and retribution form the basis of the concept of justice, which is the foundation of law for the Greeks, while for the Romans, the basis of law and justice is the choice of options for behaviour and the consequences thereof.
The position is argued that natural law for Cicero is a source of regulatory content, not a higher good to strive for. Nature is not an ideal, but a reality, a source of regulation of social relations. Cicero’s understanding of law is based on the concepts of nature, reason, and justice. If human nature is the source of regulatory content, then it is quite obvious whom the law and the state should serve.
Cicero touches the important question of understanding the law – the distinction between public and private in law, emphasising the complexity and importance of the question of distinguishing between public and private property.
For Cicero, legal consciousness and legal behaviour are largely legal processes that can intuitively sense the legality or illegality of behaviour. For Cicero, the basic legal principle of justice is revealed in legal consciousness in relation to processes such as the distribution of goods, its degree, responsibility for behaviour, its degree and necessity. For Cicero, freedom is understood as independence, limitation of interference. In turn, this is achieved through equal submission to the law. Therefore, freedom cannot cause chaos in society, but on the contrary, must be a blessing.