Inter arma enim silent leges
Inter arma enim silent leges is a Latin proverb, in German translation for example: "Because under arms the laws are silent".
The phrase goes back to the Roman politician Cicero and is taken from his contribution Pro T. Annio Milone ("For Titus Annius Milo "), his defense speech from the year 52 BC. It became a rule of law in ancient Rome . Literally, Cicero said: Silent enim leges inter arma. In doing so, he legitimized the breaking of (codified) laws in times of war.
The sentence is also taken up by modern theorists of natural law , such as Hugo Grotius , in De jure belli ac pacis , Prolegomena § 26. Thomas Hobbes explains in De cive V, 2: “It is a hackneyed saying that laws are silent under arms ; but it is also a very true one, not only in relation to civil laws, if one relates it only to convictions, but also to action. ”While Grotius limits the silence of the law to positive laws only, Hobbes is of the opinion that in times of war the natural (over-positive) laws of natural law fall silent, at least insofar as they relate to actions.
Unlike Kant . In the chapter "International Law" of his Metaphysics of Morals he rejects the just (obligatory) war. Waging war is only allowed in response to an injustice suffered (violation of the law). The state between states is a state of natural law. The principles of natural law apply even when states are at war.
An episode of the television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is called in German Unter den Waffen the laws are silent , in English the expression Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges was used.
literature
- Dieter Hüning: Inter arma silent leges. Natural law, state and international law with Thomas Hobbes. In: Rüdiger Voigt (Ed.): The Leviathan. Nomos, Baden-Baden 2000, ISBN 3-7890-6757-1 , pp. 129–163 (Staats Understandings . Vol. 1).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ 4.11