Jus

[Latin, right; justice; law; the whole body of law; also a right.] The term is used in two meanings:

Jus means law, considered in the abstract; that is, as distinguished from any specific enactment, which we call, in a general sense, the law. Or it means the law taken as a system, an aggregate, a whole. Or it may designate some one particular system or body of particular laws; as in the phrases jus civile, jus gentium, jus proetorium.

In a second sense, jus signifies a right; that is, a power, privilege, faculty, or demand inherent in one person and incident upon another; or a capacity residing in one person of controlling, with the assent and assistance of the state, the actions of another. This is its meaning in the expressions jus in rem, jus accrescendi, jus possessionis.