The archaic understanding of law: an etymological approach

The article suggests a comparative analysis of the existing etymologies of legal terms: the Greek thémis, dike, nómos, and the Latin lex and ius. Based on their correlation with the equivalent etymologies in other European languages, namely Romance, Germanic, and Slavic, as well as their connection to terms of spatial orientation (right / left), the author proposes a hypothesis that in archaic community the law was understood as the world order proclaimed within the human society by the one who draws a straight way and leads along it (the chief / leader).