Title III: On Injustice Opposed to Commutative Justice

Usefulness. - Very grave questions now remain for us to investigate concerning the multiple objects and forms of injuries, concerning their various gravity, and concerning the obligation of restoring what belongs to another which often follows. Since this is said to be the chief part of the tractate on Justice, its usefulness need not be proclaimed. But logically it is placed after the exposition in which we have summarily declared the various rights and their sources, and through that exposition it is more easily and more fully perceived by the intellect.

Order of Treatment. - The title will contain four chapters. In the first we shall treat the general notions concerning injury and restitution; in the second, concerning the principal injurious action; in the third, concerning unjust cooperation; in the fourth, concerning the circumstances and excuses of restitution. The occasion will be at hand for us to propose several things which have usually been handed down in distinct treatises on the various precepts of the Decalogue. Our arrangement seems to assist synthetic notions not a little.