Sunday Times 2
Lawyers, your role in ensuring good governance
On Monday, Dec 29 the Daily Mirror carried on Page A4 a brief news item that took me by surprise. As a non-legal, ordinary, yet concerned citizen (as many others are), with no political axe in hand, my criticism in the past, of the legal profession, as a powerful professional body, was, that until very recently, the members of the Bar Association had been satisfied with themselves, by merely confining themselves to courtroom duels on behalf of their (usually well-paying) clients. They overlooked their far-arching obligation towards the problems that the country and all its peoples faced, and to ensure that the law reigned supreme in this land that belongs to everyone and that justice was meted out to all, without fear or favour.
The Daily Mirror news item, on the other hand, reported that a group of lawyers faulted the only recently awakened and activated Bar Association for promoting good governance. This was on the grounds that lawyers had no mandate to concern themselves with such matters. So here was a view diametrically opposed to my view of being critical of the profession for their indifference in such matters that concerned the everyday lives of every citizen
The law and the just dispensation of justice formed the solid foundation on which good governance can be introduced and sustained. Regime change to usher in good governance is like (to borrow a phrase from colloquial Sinhala) ‘changing pillows to cure a headache!’ Good governance means a people oriented, people monitored and people controlled style of governance. In a recent ‘comment’ (Sunday Times, Times 2 of Dec 14) I have outlined briefly my concept of good governance.
In support of my firm conviction and contention regarding the heavy responsibility that the legal profession has to bear in promoting good governance, I can do no better than, with apologies to the author, quote some relevant extracts from Judge C.G. Weeramantry’s recently published work, ‘Towards One World – The Memoirs of Judge Weeramantry Vol 3.’
In making a strong and persistent case for the establishment of a Universal Law, the learned Judge states that Ancient Hindu Law (going back more than 2000 years) stressed that the Ultimate Sovereign of all humanity is a Universal Law rather than a Universal Sovereign. This most laudable principle then must surely apply to each and every country (including this small tear drop).
In a section entitled, The Legal Profession as a Catalyst for the improvement of the Law…I quote: (p.459)
“Nobody knows better than the lawyers the defects and loopholes in legal systems, through which injustice overcomes justice. Their (the lawyers) collective experience in this field is vast, but this pool of experience lies untapped. There should be committees of the Bar entrusted with overlooking these areas and bringing them to the notice of the legislative authority and the general public.”
Again he writes in a section titled The legal profession’s obligation to generate respect for the Law. (P459)
“The legal profession is among society’s principal custodians of the legal system”
Under the heading, Responsibility of the legal profession to keep new legislation under surveillance, he states:
“Very often new legislation that is proposed can contain dangers to the Rule of Law, (dangers) which are not perceived by legislators or by the public”.
If a legal profession should permit legislation to enter the statute books without uttering a prior note of warning, it would be failing in the high responsibilities attached to the profession
“It is true much legislation is politically oriented and politically motivated.
Legal professions do not need to enter into this particular area, but if there are hidden or unperceived dangers to the Rule of Law or a potential for defeating human rights, legal professions would have failed in their responsibility, if they did not bring this forward to the relevant authorities, in a totally non-political manner.”
Coming specifically to the Sri Lankan scene, a good example of the disastrous effects on good governance of the dereliction of duty on the part of BASL is the rushing through parliament, with a spineless two-thirds majority, of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, an amendment which gave the Head of State the powers of a ruling monarch. The Bar Association at that time remained completely silent.
Getting back to Judge Weeramantry, in an appeal to lawyers and legal professions, he writes succinctly and with firm conviction:
“This work is a plea to lawyers individually and to legal professions as repositories of their exalted vocation, to shed this attitude of insularity, and to see the law as the most far ranging instrument of service available to society for the advancement of happiness and justice.”
With this last quote from this legal luminary, respected internationally for his unique approach to the law and justice, for his intellectual honesty and fearless commitment to what he sincerely believed in, a former judge of the International Court of Justice, Judge Christopher Weeramantry, I rest my case.