iustitia

Iustitia, iustitiae is first declension feminine, an abstract noun formed from iustus with the -itia suffix that also gives amicitia, malitia and laetitia. Spelling note for this corpus: manuscripts and printed editions write i or j indifferently, so justitia and iustitia are the same word.

Classically it is one of the four cardinal virtues, the disposition to give each person their due, and Cicero defines it in almost those words. Christian Latin then loads the term with the Hebrew sense of righteousness before God, so in the Vulgate iustitia frequently means holiness rather than fairness in a court, and translating it as "justice" there can flatten the sense. Distinguish it from ius, which is the right or law itself, and from iudicium, which is the trial or the verdict.