“Justice is founded once for all upon the whole of human nature, which, if we know it, binds men together in a common society.”Cicero · Despre îndatoriri · -44 · cartea I, paragraful 22
Justice is not a local bargain, but the law of nature binding us all into one community.
Cicero opposes the idea that justice is merely a local agreement, valid in one city and false in another. His argument: humans are made for sociability, sharing reason and language, so there is a natural law valid everywhere. From this it follows that wronging someone violates your own nature, not just a written statute. One example: even an enemy has a right to a fair trial.
Why it matters In debates about human rights, the line offers the classical grounding: justice is not negotiated from culture to culture but follows from what we are.