to give someone the benefit of the doubt

Question

This common English idiom means ‘to continue trusting someone despite reservations or misgivings’. How might it be translated into Latin? I can only think of some wordy phrase like alicui confidere certis dumtaxat positis cautionibus. Or, more concisely, dubitanter alicui confidere. But neither equivalent is satisfctory.

Answer 1

I will focus on the "benefit of the doubt" part. It seems to be a common expression in all Romance languages.

• English: benefit of the doubt
• French: bénéfice du doute
• Italian: beneficio del dubbio
• Spanish: beneficio de la duda

So simply "beneficium dubii" could be a reasonable translation. And it is attested in a few places:

If we extend the beneficium dubii to those contradictory statements… Collected Works of C.G. Jung

so hat der Patient das volle Recht das Beneficium dubii… New Yorker Medizinische Presse

I would argue instead that a hermeneutic of the beneficium dubii… The Politics of Theological Free Speech in the Cappadocian Fathers