2. The "natural" law of delict

The new foundations had been laid about 80 years before the publication of the "Larva", by Hugo Grotius. An obligation, he said, can arise from three sources: pactio, maleficium, and lex.

"Maleficium hie appellamus culpam omnem, sive in faciendo, sive in non faciendo, pugnantem cum co quod aut homines communiter, aut pro ratione certae qualitatis facere debent. Ex tali culpa obligauo naturaliter oritur, si damnum datum est, nempe ut id resarciatur."^[5375]

This was the principal and fundamental proposition of the "natural" law of delict; if someone causes damage because he culpably does what he ought not to do, he is obliged to make it good.^[5376] Samuel Pufendorf elaborated the moral foundations of this principle. Innate in man is what he calls socialitas: he has to live, and get on, with his fellow human beings.^[5377] The most important precept flowing from man's social nature is this: "(I.) Ut nc quis alterum laedat, utque (II.) si quod damnum alteri dederit, id reparet."^[5378] (I.), incidentally, is the second of Ulpian's three fundamental iuris praecepta: "honeste vivere, alterum non laedere, suum cuique tribuere."^[5379] It is based, ultimately, on the golden rule of moral philosophy: "Do as you would be done by"—a point, perhaps most clearly emphasized by Christian Thomasius:

"Damnum alteri a nobis datum, esse resarciendum,... cordibus hominum mscriptum est... Postulat id coramunis tranquillitas, postulat aequalitas humani generis. Nemo sibi vult damnum dari, non itaque det aliis. Quilibet vult sibi damnum ab aliis datum resarcin; resarciat aliis."""

3.