Jedem das Seine Jedem das Seine "" () is the literal German translation of Latin "suum cuique", a fundamental juridical concept meaning "to each his own" or "to each what he deserves". During World War II the phrase was cynically used by the Nazis as a motto displayed over the entrance of Buchenwald concentration camp. This has resulted in use of the phrase being considered controversial in modern Germany. "Jedem das Seine" has been an idiomatic German expression for several centuries. For example, it is found in the works of Martin Luther and contemporaries. It appears in the title of a cantata by
Alf Ross in 1929 from the university. In 1935, he was appointed to teach at the University of Copenhagen in Constitutional Law. In 1953, Ross published "Om Ret og Retfærdighed" (which he would later publish in English, under the title "On Law and Justice"). In this book, he states that there is no a priori validity to give the law some special position. Experience serves as a guideline. This means, for example, that the famous dictum ‘suum cuique tribuere’, ‘to give to everyone his own’, has no meaning until it has been determined what actually belongs to someone, which means that this