Rei publicae interest ne crimina remaneant impunita Lex Aquilia
Dig. 9.2.51(52).4: "Quod si quis
absurde a nobis haec constituti putaverit, cogitet longe absurdius
constitui neutrum lege Aquilia teneri aut alterum potius,
cum neque impunita maleficia esse
oporteat nec facile constitui possit, uter
Innocent III, Vt
famae (10 December,
1203)
Innocent III, Pope. Die
Register Innocenz' III. 6: 6. Pontifikatsjahr, 1203/1204, Texte und
Indices. Ed. Othmar Hageneder, John C. Moore, and Andrea Sommerlechner
with Christoph Egger and Herwig Weigl. Publikationen des Historischen
Instituts beim Österreichischen Kulturinstitut in Rom. Wien: Verlag der
österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1995. No. 181 (183), pp.
301-302. Po. 2038.
Alanus Anglicus, 5.12.5 (Inauditum hactenus speciem falsitatis). Vercelli, Bibl. Cap. 89, fol. 120r-120v. Gloss of Alanus to "et publice interest quod maleficia non remaneant impunita" fol. 120v: "Infra de incid. in can. Vt fame <Alan. K 5.23.2= 3 Comp. 5.21.8 (X 5.39.35)>, ff. ad leg. Aquil. Item uult [Ita uulneratus recte] § penult. <Dig. 9.2.51(52).4> ff. [C. recte] de [ade male]penis, Superioris [Si operis recte], <Cod. 9.47.14> ff. de fideius. Si a reo § Idem quod uult [uolgo recte] <Dig. 46.1.70(71).5> Tancred, De criminibus et qualiter agitur contra criminosos (ca. 1216), edited by Richard M. Fraher, "Summula de criminibus: A New Text and a Key to the Ordo iudiciarius," Bulletin of Medieval Canon Law 9 (1979) 23-31 Incipit: Quoniam rei publice interest ut crimina non remaneant impunita . . . nota quod quattuor modis agitur de crimine . . . in modum denunciationis, inquisitionis, exceptionis, et accusationis (It is in the public interest that crimes do not remain unpunished ... Note that there are four ways of bringing a crime to justice: denunciation, inquisition, exception, and accusation). Richard M. Fraher, "The Theoretical Justification for the New Criminal Law of the High Middle Ages: Rei publicae interest, ne crimina remaneant impunita," The University of Illinois Law Review (1984) 577-595 at 590 n. 66: Summa induent sancti (ca. 1190): "crimina non remanere impunita publice interest et oportet." The crucial link between "utilitas" and "crimina impunita" is made in this text --- but it is unlikely that anyone in the Roman Curia would have known this Northern French work. On the origins of the maxim "ne crimina remaneant impunita" see also K. Pennington, "Innocent III and the Ius commune," Grundlagen des Rechts: Festschrift für Peter Landau zum 65. Geburtstag, herausgegeben von Richard Helmholz, Paul Mikat, Jörg Müller, Michael Stolleis (Rechts- und Staatswissenschaftliche Veröffentlichungen der Görres-Gesellschaft, NF 91; Paderborn: Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, 2000) 352-354 Günter
Jerouschek, "'Ne crimina remaneant impunita': Auf daß Verbrechen
nicht ungestraft bleiben:
There is no doubt, however, that the idea that crimes should be punished became part of the common intellectual coin --- if not yet clearly articulated in twelfth-century thought. Lotte Kéry demonstrates this quite convincingly by discovering a text in which "utilitas" and "crimina impunita" are linked outside of canonical texts, see her essay "Canon Law and Criminal Law: Results of a New Study," Proceedings of the Twelfth International Congress of Medieval Canon Law, Washington, D.C. (MIC, Series C Subsidia 13; Vatican City: 2007) notes a remarkable text in the letters of Fulbert of Chartres: sed cum iuris sit ad utilitatem rei publicae cunctos punire maleficos. printed in The Letters and Poems of Fulbert of Chartres, ed. and transl. by F. Behrends (Oxford Medieval Texts; Oxford 1976) 54, n. 29. So we have two examples of a link between "publica utilitas" and "crimina punienda sunt" that pre-date Innocent's decretals. Of course, we may find more. In the end, however, the maxim is the product of a skillful blend of Roman law and the common presumptions of the age. |