Happy New Year and Justice for All


Bringing good Holiday Cheer to advocates of justice and the rule of law, Dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster announced on December 17 that its 2018 "word of the year" is "justice."  In his Wall Street Journal column, “Word on the Street,” Ben Zimmer cites Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster at large, who told Zimmer that “justice” made its appearance in English in the 12th century as a French version of the Latin word “iustitia,” meaning “fairness” and “equity.”  The word “justice” helped to turn the concepts of fairness, equity, and judicial independence into a system that became the basis of common law.

Zimmer notes that the Latin “iustitia” has given us a historical legacy that has a familiar allegorical form: the Roman goddess of justice, Iustitia, portrayed holding the scales of justice in one hand and a sword in the other. She wears a blindfold to represent impartiality in the application of law.

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