ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author examines the distinct attributes of what political theorists have long regarded simply as the law, the lawyer’s law or the nomos of the ancient Greeks and the ius of the Romans. The character of grown law stands out most clearly if the peoples look at the condition among groups of men possessing common conceptions of justice but no common government. Groups held together by common rules, but without a deliberately created organization for the enforcement of these rules, have certainly often existed. In an external environment which constantly changes and in which consequently some individuals will always be discovering new facts, and where the peoples want them to make use of the new knowledge, it is clearly impossible to protect all expectations. The understanding of the role which values play is often prevented by substituting for ‘values’ factual terms like ‘habits’ or ‘practices’.
