Giambattista Vico was an eighteenth-century philosopher of history who provided a new and provocative account of the development of human institutions. His influence has been and continues to be significant. Yet, sadly, his work has been largely neglected by legal scholars. This neglect might be explained by the lack in Vico's principal work, Nuova Scienza, of any systematic account of the invention—or discovery—of the idea of justice. Given the scope of Vico's concern with human institutions, this failure is surprising. To be sure there are hints—more than hints—to be found throughout The New Science; nevertheless, his account of this important concept is fragmentary and scattered. This essay intends to demonstrate the value of Vico's work to the study of jurisprudence by tracing the roots and later development of the idea of justice as Vico might have elaborated them. [Bracketed references are to paragraph numbers in T. Bergin and M. Fisch (tr.), The New Science of Giambattista Vico (Cornell Univ. Press, 1968)].