jus

Jus

[Latin, right; justice; law; the whole body of law; also a right.] The term is used in two meanings:

Jus means law, considered in the abstract; that is, as distinguished from any specific enactment, which we call, in a general sense, the law. Or it means the law taken as a system, an aggregate, a whole. Or it may designate some one particular system or body of particular laws; as in the phrases jus civile, jus gentium, jus proetorium.

In a second sense, jus signifies a right; that is, a power, privilege, faculty, or demand inherent in one person and incident upon another; or a capacity residing in one person of controlling, with the assent and assistance of the state, the actions of another. This is its meaning in the expressions jus in rem, jus accrescendi, jus possessionis.

West's Encyclopedia of American Law, edition 2. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

jus

a right, power, or authority.

Collins Dictionary of Law © W.J. Stewart, 2006

JUS. Law or right. This term is applied in many modern phrases. It is also used to signify equity. Story, Eq. Jur. Sec. 1; Bract, lib. 1, c. 4, p. 3; Tayl. Civ. Law, 147; Dig. 1, 1, 1.
     2. The English law, like the Roman, has its jus antiquum and jus novum and jus novissimum. The jus novum may be supposed to have taken its origin about the end of the reign of Henry VII. A. D. 1509. It assumed a regular form towards the end of the reign of Charles II. A. D. 1685, and from that period the jus novissimum may be dated. Lord Coke, who was born 40 years after the death of Henry VII. is most advantageously considered as the connecting link of the jus antiquum and jus novissimum of English law. Butler's Remin.

A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States. By John Bouvier. Published 1856.