Law and Constitution in Cicero’s res publica as a Result of Dialectical Discovery

The paper examines Cicero’s legal doctrine in the context of his political and philosophical theory, interpreting his concept of natural law as an abstract summum bonum that can only be recognized approximately, and at the same time as a precursor of modern constitutional thought. The approach is dialectical: intrapersonally through self-cultivation toward wisdom, and politically through institutions that ensure the balance of interests, thereby producing the best possible positive law. Cicero sees himself both as a philosopher and as a nomothete who, drawing on historical experience and philosophical reflection, assumes the legitimacy to propose a constitutional order. This marks him as an early forerunner of a normative, reason-based constitution, grounded in the insight that the common good must always rest on philosophical principles and be sought through procedure, and that without this pursuit no res publica can exist.