nemo debet esse judex in propria causa

Definitiones

“No one ought to be the judge in his own trial”: one should not take the law into one’s own hands.

New-Latin

Exempla

“Ad tertium, cum dicunt, quòd illi, à quibus abstulerunt, fortè habent plus de suo⟳, dicitur, quòd nemo debet esse iudex in propria causa.”

To the third [point], when they say that those from whom they have stolen perhaps have more than themselves, it is said that no one ought to be the judge in his own trial.

“Deberet autem occisio fieri in continenti, seu flagranti: nam ex intervallo, si fur jam coepisset quietè possidere, non liceret; quia tunc non haberet rationem justae defensionis; sed tunc sunt adhibenda Iuris remedia, & auctoritas publica, quia nemo debet esse Iudex in propria causa.”

The killing would have to have been done in a restrained manner, or in passion: for, from a distance, if the thief had at that point begun to take possession quietly, it would not be lawful; for there would then be no reason of just defence; but there should then be recourse to the remedies of the Law, and to the public authority, for no one ought to be the judge in his own trial.

“[…] quoniam nemo debet esse judex in propria causa, sed injuriam passus contra injuriantem actionem injuriarum coram judice competente legitimè instituere debet, ad conservandam famam […]”

[…] since no one ought to be the judge in his own trial, but the one who has suffered an injury should legitimately undertake an action for delict against the injurer before a competent judge, so as to preserve his reputation […]

Gradus CEFR