let justice be done whatever be the consequence
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''Fīat jūstitia ruat cælum'' is a Latin legal phrase, meaning "Let justice be done though the heavens fall." The maxim signifies the belief that justice must be realized regardless of consequences. According to the 19th-century abolitionist politician
Charles Sumner Charles Sumner (January 6, 1811March 11, 1874) was an American statesman and United States Senator from Massachusetts. As an academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the anti-slavery forces in the state and a leader of th ...
, it does not come from any classical source. It has also been ascribed to Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, see "Piso's justice". It was used in ''
Somerset v Stewart ''Somerset v Stewart'' (177298 ER 499(also known as ''Somersett's case'', ''v. XX Sommersett v Steuart and the Mansfield Judgment)'' is a judgment of the English Court of King's Bench in 1772, relating to the right of an enslaved person on E ...
''.


Classical forms


The ancient metaphor of the falling sky

The falling sky clause occurs in a passage of ''
Heauton Timorumenos ''Heauton Timorumenos'' (Greek: Ἑαυτὸν τιμωρούμενος, ''Heauton timōroumenos'', ''The Self-Tormentor'') is a play written in Latin by Terence (Latin: ''Publius Terentius Afer''), a dramatist of the Roman Republic, in 163 BC. ...
'', by
Terence Publius Terentius Afer (; – ), better known in English as Terence (), was a Roman African playwright during the Roman Republic. His comedies were performed for the first time around 166–160 BC. Terentius Lucanus, a Roman senator, brought ...
, suggesting that it was a common saying in his time. In the scene, Syrus suggests a scheme through which Clinia might deceive another into taking actions that would further his love interests. Syrus lays out his plan, while Clinia, who must act it out, finds faults with it, finally asking, "Is that sufficient? If his father should come to know of it, pray, what then?" To which the Syrus replies, ''"Quid si redeo ad illos qui aiunt, 'Quid si nunc cœlum ruat?''—"What if I have recourse to those who say, 'What now if the sky were to fall?, the suggestion being that Clinia has no other options available, so to worry that the plan will, obviously, fail if the father finds out makes no more sense than worrying about the fact that it will also fail if the world were to suddenly end. This concern recalls a passage in Arrian's Campaigns of
Alexander Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...
, Book I, 4, where ambassadors of the Celtae from the Adriatic sea, tall men of haughty demeanor, upon being asked by Alexander what in the world they feared most, answered that their worst fear was that the sky might fall on their heads. Alexander, who hoped to hear himself named, was disappointed by an answer that implied that nothing within human power could hurt them, short of a total destruction of nature. In a similar vein,
Theognis of Megara Theognis of Megara ( grc-gre, Θέογνις ὁ Μεγαρεύς, ''Théognis ho Megareús'') was a Greek lyric poet active in approximately the sixth century BC. The work attributed to him consists of gnomic poetry quite typical of the time, ...
urges "May the great broad sky of bronze fall on my head / (That fear of earth-born men) if I am not / A friend to those who love me, and a pain / And irritation to my enemies." Whereas
Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ph ...
asserts in his ''Physics'', B. IV, that it was the early notion of ignorant nations that the sky was supported on the shoulders of
Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geograp ...
, and that when he let go of it, it would fall. On the other hand, Horace opens one of his odes with a depiction of a
Stoic Stoic may refer to: * An adherent of Stoicism; one whose moral quality is associated with that school of philosophy * STOIC, a programming language * ''Stoic'' (film), a 2009 film by Uwe Boll * ''Stoic'' (mixtape), a 2012 mixtape by rapper T-Pain * ...
hero who will submit to the ruin of the universe around him: "''Si fractus illabatur orbis, / impavidum ferient ruinae''"—"Should the whole frame of Nature round him break, / In ruin and confusion hurled, / He, unconcerned, would hear the mighty crack, / And stand secure amidst a falling world." (''Odes'' 3.3.7–8, translated by
Joseph Addison Joseph Addison (1 May 1672 – 17 June 1719) was an English essayist, poet, playwright and politician. He was the eldest son of The Reverend Lancelot Addison. His name is usually remembered alongside that of his long-standing friend Richar ...
.)


Seneca: "Piso's justice"

In '' De Ira'' (On Anger), Book I, Chapter XVIII,
Seneca Seneca may refer to: People and language * Seneca (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname * Seneca people, one of the six Iroquois tribes of North America ** Seneca language, the language of the Seneca people Places Extrat ...
tells of Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso, a Roman governor and lawmaker, when he was angry, ordering the execution of a soldier who had returned from a
leave of absence The labour law concept of leave, specifically paid leave or, in some countries' long-form, a leave of absence, is an authorised prolonged absence from work, for any reason authorised by the workplace. When people "take leave" in this way, they are ...
without his comrade, on the grounds that if the man did not produce his companion, he had presumably killed the latter. As the condemned man was presenting his neck to the executioner's sword, there suddenly appeared the very comrade who was supposedly murdered. The centurion overseeing the execution halted the proceedings and led the condemned man back to Piso, expecting a reprieve. But Piso mounted the tribunal in a rage, and ordered the three soldiers to be executed. He ordered the death of the man who was to have been executed, because the sentence had already been passed; he also ordered the death of the centurion who was in charge of the original execution, for failing to perform his duty; and finally, he ordered the death of the man who had been supposed to have been murdered, because he had been the cause of the death of two innocent men. In subsequent versions of this legend, this principle became known as "Piso's justice", a term that characterizes sentences that are carried out or passed from retaliation—whose intentions are theoretically defensible, but technically and morally wrong—and this could be construed as a negative interpretation of the meaning of ''Fiat justitia ruat caelum'' according to Brewer's entry on Seneca. However, the phrase ''Fiat justitia ruat caelum'' does not appear in ''De Ira''; and, in fact, Seneca used the story as an example of anger leading people to ignore right and do wrong, as Piso's decisions trampled on several legal principles, particularly that of
Corpus delicti (Latin for "body of the crime"; plural: ), in Western law, is the principle that a crime must be proved to have occurred before a person can be convicted of committing that crime. For example, a person cannot be tried for larceny unless it ca ...
, which states that a person cannot be convicted of a crime unless it can be proven that the crime was even committed. Piso's verdict could never be an example of justice because of these fatal flaws: he could not charge a suspect with murder because he lacked physical, demonstrative and testimonial evidence to establish that the missing individual has indeed died (the physical body of the deceased being the most important of these absences). Piso was put to trial a short time after this episode, accused of a long list of crimes, and committed suicide. Among the charges brought against him was
summary judgment In law, a summary judgment (also judgment as a matter of law or summary disposition) is a judgment entered by a court for one party and against another party summarily, i.e., without a full trial. Summary judgments may be issued on the merits of ...
, the crime of sentencing a suspect with undue haste and without proper investigation, thus ignoring the legal procedures of justice. The phrase is sometimes attributed to a different Piso, Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, possibly a confusion with this case.


Modern origins

The exact phrase as used for approval of justice at all cost—usually seen in a positive sense—appears to originate in modern jurisprudence. In English law,
William Watson William, Willie, Bill or Billy Watson may refer to: Entertainment * William Watson (songwriter) (1794–1840), English concert hall singer and songwriter * William Watson (poet) (1858–1935), English poet * Billy Watson (actor) (1923–2022), A ...
in "Ten Quodlibetical Quotations Concerning Religion and State" (1601) "You go against that general maxim in the laws, which is 'Fiat justitia et ruant coeli. This is its first known appearance in English literature. The maxim was used by
William Prynne William Prynne (1600 – 24 October 1669), an English lawyer, voluble author, polemicist and political figure, was a prominent Puritan opponent of church policy under William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury (1633–1645). His views were presbyte ...
in "Fresh Discovery of Prodigious Wandering New-Blazing Stars" (1646), by
Nathaniel Ward Nathaniel Ward (1578 – October 1652) was a Puritan clergyman and pamphleteer in England and Massachusetts. Biography A son of John Ward, a noted Puritan minister, he was born in Haverhill, Suffolk, England. He studied law and graduated fr ...
in "Simple Cobbler of Agawam" (1647), and frequently thereafter, but it was given its widest celebrity by William Murray, 1st Baron Mansfield's decision on 8 June 1768, on the case concerning the outlawry of
John Wilkes John Wilkes (17 October 1725 – 26 December 1797) was an English radical journalist and politician, as well as a magistrate, essayist and soldier. He was first elected a Member of Parliament in 1757. In the Middlesex election dispute, he f ...
(and not, as is commonly believed, in
Somerset v Stewart ''Somerset v Stewart'' (177298 ER 499(also known as ''Somersett's case'', ''v. XX Sommersett v Steuart and the Mansfield Judgment)'' is a judgment of the English Court of King's Bench in 1772, relating to the right of an enslaved person on E ...
, the 1772 case concerning the legality of slavery in England). Another famous eighteenth-century usage appears in
David Hume David Hume (; born David Home; 7 May 1711 NS (26 April 1711 OS) – 25 August 1776) Cranston, Maurice, and Thomas Edmund Jessop. 2020 999br>David Hume" ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved 18 May 2020. was a Scottish Enlightenment phil ...
's 1748 essay "Of Passive Obedience". Hume rejects it as false, although he argues that justice must in extraordinary cases of necessity be sacrificed to the public interest. In 1860 this maxim was placed on the flag of the Alamo City Guards Texas Militia. The maxim is given in various forms: * ''Fiat justitia, ruat cœlum/coelum/cælum/caelum'' (spellings) * ''Fiat justitia et ruant coeli'' (Watson) * ''Fiat justitia et coelum ruat'' (
John Manningham John Manningham (1570s – 1622) was an English lawyer and diarist, a contemporary source for Elizabethan era and Jacobean era life and the London dramatic world, including William Shakespeare. Life He was son of Robert Manningham of Fen Drayto ...
, Diary, 11 April 1603) * ''Fiat justitia, ruat coelum'' (Lord Mansfield)


Famous modern uses

In British India, this phrase was used by Sir S. Subramania Iyer during a case ("Tirupati (or Tirupathi) Mahant case") in Madras High Court. It was a case regarding religious faith versus the law, where a Hindu Temple administrator (called the 'mahant') was accused by the high priest of misappropriation of donations, replacing a vessel full of gold with base metals, like copper and placing it beneath the flagstaff of the temple. The barrister representing the high priest used this phrase in his speech to justify digging up the flagstaff to check the vessel. More recently, Judge James Edwin Horton referred to the maxim when he recalled his decision to overturn the conviction of Haywood Patterson in the infamous Scottsboro Boys trial. In 1933, Judge Horton set aside the death sentence of Patterson, one of nine black men who were wrongfully convicted of raping two white women in Alabama. Horton quoted the phrase when explaining why he made his decision, even though he knew it would mean the end of his judicial career. This is referenced with the title of a film based on the case, ''
Heavens Fall ''Heavens Fall'' is a 2006 American film based on the Scottsboro Boys incident of 1931. Plot In the film, two young white women (portrayed by Leelee Sobieski and Azura Skye) accuse nine black youths of rape in the segregated South. Timothy H ...
'' (where the line is quoted). Similarly,
Lord Mansfield William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, PC, SL (2 March 170520 March 1793) was a British barrister, politician and judge noted for his reform of English law. Born to Scottish nobility, he was educated in Perth, Scotland, before moving to Lond ...
, in reversing the
outlawry An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so that anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill them ...
of
John Wilkes John Wilkes (17 October 1725 – 26 December 1797) was an English radical journalist and politician, as well as a magistrate, essayist and soldier. He was first elected a Member of Parliament in 1757. In the Middlesex election dispute, he f ...
in 1768, used the phrase to reflect upon the duty of the court. The phrase is engraved on the wall behind the bench in the Supreme Court of Georgia and over the lintel of the Bridewell Garda station in
Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...
. The
Tennessee Supreme Court The Tennessee Supreme Court is the ultimate judicial tribunal of the state of Tennessee. Roger A. Page is the Chief Justice. Unlike other states, in which the state attorney general is directly elected or appointed by the governor or state leg ...
uses the phrase as its motto; it appears in the seal of the Court and is inlaid into the floor of the lobby of the court's building in Nashville. During
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, the 447th Bomb Group of the Eighth Air Force used the phrase as its motto, which appeared on the group's official unit markings. Ohio's Old Perry County Courthouse features an English translation of the phrase over its main entrance, which has gained extensive attention due to its mangled wording: "Let Justice be done. If the Heavens should fall." The University of Saskatchewan College of Law uses the first half of the phrase as their motto, simply: "Fiat Justitia". The entire phrase is the motto of the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the
University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top thre ...
. In the Oliver Stone 1991 film ''
JFK John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination i ...
'', New Orleans District Attorney
Jim Garrison James Carothers Garrison (born Earling Carothers Garrison; November 20, 1921 – October 21, 1992) was the District Attorney of Orleans Parish, Louisiana, from 1962 to 1973. A member of the Democratic Party, he is best known for his investigat ...
(
Kevin Costner Kevin Michael Costner (born January 18, 1955) is an American actor, producer, film director and musician. He has received various accolades, including two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Screen Actor ...
) uses a variation, "Let justice be done, though the heavens fall", in reference to his investigation of the assassination of President Kennedy. In the 2006
Vin Diesel Mark Sinclair (born July 18, 1967), known professionally as Vin Diesel, is an American actor. One of the world's highest-grossing actors, he is best known for playing Dominic Toretto in the ''Fast & Furious'' franchise. Diesel began auditio ...
comedy '' Find Me Guilty'', the phrase (misspelled as "Fiat Justica et Ruat Caelum") is inscribed on the front of a federal judge's bench, and is translated by a defense attorney as part of his opening statement. Joseph Conrad's 1899 novella '' Heart of Darkness'' contains a possible reference to the maxim at the very end of the text. Protagonist Marlow says, "It seemed to me that the house would collapse before I could escape, that the heavens would fall upon my head. But nothing happened. The heavens do not fall for such a trifle."
George Eliot Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrot ...
has Mr. Brooke mangle and misattribute this phrase in ''
Middlemarch ''Middlemarch, A Study of Provincial Life'' is a novel by the English author Mary Anne Evans, who wrote as George Eliot. It first appeared in eight installments (volumes) in 1871 and 1872. Set in Middlemarch, a fictional English Midland town, ...
'', where he says, "You should read history – look at ostracism, persecution, martyrdom, and that kind of thing. They always happen to the best men, you know. But what is that in Horace?—''fiat justitia, ruat'' ... something or other." The anime series '' Aldnoah.Zero'' features the phrase as a tagline alongside the show's logo. It is also speculated that the ending of the series' first half is a retelling of "Piso's Justice", concerning the fate of the three men. In an episode of ''
Hawaii Five-O Hawaii Five-O or Hawaii Five-0 may refer to: * ''Hawaii Five-0'' (2010 TV series), an American action police procedural television series * ''Hawaii Five-O'' (1968 TV series), an American police procedural drama series produced by CBS Productio ...
'', Steve McGarrett has to deal with an extralegal Star Chamber court that addresses cases of accused who got away with their crimes because of some technicality or procedural error. The leader would end their deliberations with the quote, then proceed to the verdict, usually death. McGarrett reads the quote in one scene, then translates it. In the ''
Better Call Saul ''Better Call Saul'' is an American crime and legal drama television series created by Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould. Part of the ''Breaking Bad'' franchise, it is a spin-off of Gilligan's previous series, ''Breaking Bad'', and serves as a ...
'' episode "Chicanery", the character Charles McGill utters the phrase "Let justice be done though the heavens fall!" before making an argument to appear in open court in a trial against his brother Jimmy. Jimmy would later echo the phrase in the episode "Fun and Games", as the series flash-forwards to his most successful period under the persona Saul Goodman. In the ''
Designated Survivor In the United States, a designated survivor (or designated successor) is a named individual in the presidential line of succession, chosen to stay at an undisclosed secure location, away from events such as State of the Union addresses and pre ...
'' episode "Target", the character Seth Wright utters the phrase "Let justice be done though the heavens may fall!" referring to President Kirkman's intention to "do what is right" in the face of former President Moss's announcement of his candidacy for the next presidential election in order to undermine Kirkman's administration. During President Clinton's Impeachment Hearings, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, "Let justice be done though the heavens fall". In ''
The Boys (TV series) ''The Boys'' is an American superhero television series developed by Eric Kripke for Amazon Prime Video. Based on the comic book of the same name by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, it follows the eponymous team of vigilantes as they comba ...
'', the phrase is carved into the base of the statue of The Seven outside of the conference room in Vought Tower.


See also

* ''
Fiat justitia ''Fiat justitia'' is a Latin phrase, meaning "Let justice be done". Historically in England, a warrant for a writ of error in Parliament or later a petition of right in the courts could be brought only after the king, or on his behalf the Home Sec ...
'' * '' Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus'', a similar phrase *
Henny Penny "Henny Penny", more commonly known in the United States as "Chicken Little" and sometimes as "Chicken Licken", is a European folk tale with a moral in the form of a cumulative tale about a chicken who believes that the world is coming to an end ...
, or Chicken Little, a folk tale about a chick who believes the sky is falling


References


External links

{{commons category-inline, Fiat justitia ruat cælum Brocards (law) Latin legal terminology Latin mottos Latin quotations