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I am trying to make sense of the phrase ubi jus ibi remedium. It seems incomplete, and I feel I should add two verbs and something to separate the two sentences, for example:

Ubi jus est, ibi est remedium
Ubi est jus, ibi est remedium

Or maybe it is better with no comma at all?

How would we add two copies of est and a comma? Would any of these make a good translation?

"Where law exists, there is (a legal) remedy"
"Where there is law, there is remedy"
"Where law exists (maybe is), there exists(maybe is) remedy"

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  • I'm a little confused. Do you want to translate "Where law exists, there is (a legal) remedy" into Latin, ubi ius ibi remedium into English, or modify the Latin phrase? It'd be great if you could edit and clarify the goal.
    – Joonas Ilmavirta
    Commented Jan 29, 2021 at 9:43
  • @JoonasIlmavirta I am trying to understand the phrase because it seems most incomplete. There is no verb. It would actually make the most sense if there where 2 verbs and something separating the two sentences. Maybe a comma or a period (a semicolon would be weird as I have not seen any in Latin texts). After completing the sentence with its verbs and punctiation I would like to translate it from Latin to English. Commented Jan 29, 2021 at 10:05
  • Thanks! I tried to reformulate your question for more clarity. Feel free to edit further or undo my edits.
    – Joonas Ilmavirta
    Commented Jan 29, 2021 at 10:19

1 Answer 1

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Leaving est implicit is common, especially in succinct sayings like this. Punctuation works differently in different languages and classical Latin had almost none. It is good to remember that all punctuation and capitalization in classical texts are due to much later editors, not the original authors. Supplying a comma makes sense here.

To me the most natural completion is:

Ubi [est] ius[,] ibi [est] remedium.
Where there is justice, there is remedy.

To me the most natural translation of the implicit est in this context is "there is". If it was something stronger like "exists", I would expect an explicit verb in the Latin original.

The construction ubi X ibi Y has many incarnations, such as ubi cor ibi patria. Many recognize it and it is simple to use, so I find it an excellent method of expressing thoughts like this. In English you can't idiomatically say "where justice, there remedy" without sounding like Tarzan, but in some other languages you can. In addition to Latin, the same is possible (in the context of a motto or a poem) in Finnish, although we would normally add two copies of "is".

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