Words of wisdom

LAWYER'S WIT AND WISDOM: Bruce Nash and Allan Zulla; Universal Law Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd., C-FF-1A, Insal's Dilkush Industrial Estate, G.T. Karnal Road, Delhi-110033. Rs. 250.

THE PUBLISHERS of the book under review have placed Indian legal scholars in debt by adding to available forensic literature a flow of foreign legal publications at Indian prices. The Bench and the Bar, jurists and law students have now a considerable canvas of global, jural material. This imparts a larger vision, broader erudition and wider jurisprudential dimension to our legal profession's equipment. The philosophy of law has an expanding horizon and, in this process, the publishers have played a constructive role, not merely through ponderous textbooks and profound classics but also by bringing into the market lesser level, yet entertainingly instructive, books written in lighter vein on odd titles. For instance, I hold in my hand a small book and behold in its pages a bewildering but enlightening collection of quotations - a panorama of lovely and learned quotes spread out in a handy tiny book, rewarding to read but priced with libraries and prosperous lawyers in mind.

The book has beauty in get-up and brevity in words of wisdom. The legal profession has not been the favourite of history from the days of the Bible, Shakespeare, Dickens, Swinburne and other literary greats. At the same time, the world of law commands, with awe, the social order and its commandments if violated with coercive consequences. Samuel Butler has said, "In law, nothing is certain but the expense". Anatole France has cynically remarked: "The law, in its majestic equality, forbids all men to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread - the rich as well as the poor".

John Locke has brought home a burning truth: "Where-ever Law ends, Tyranny begins". An equally profound observation is made by the great Justice Brandeis: "If we desire respect for the law we must first make the law respectable".

If I may make an acid comment, are our laws respectable or responsible or repressive or slumbersome? Our statute book is replete with laws, rules, regulations and notifications and a maze of all other obscure items that the layman or the judge is baffled. Here comes the relevance of Albert Einstein: "Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced''.

Lawyering is a difficult art and, absent learning, becomes a mere moneymaking trick. That is why Sir Water Scott has said: "A lawyer without history or literature is a mechanic, a mere working mason".

At the same time, the lawyer on service, in our adversary system has become an unavoidable route to secure justice. So it is that an American journalist Quinn has said: "Lawyers{hellip} operators of the toll bridge across which anyone in search of justice must pass".

What is justice? Justinian has told us what it is: "Justice is the earnest and constant will to render to every man his due. The precepts of the law are these: to live honourably, to injure no other man, to render to every man his due".

M. K. Gandhi, before he became Mahatma but was a pragmatic lawyer in Africa, had said: "I had learnt the true practice of law. I had learnt to find out the better side of human nature and to enter men's hearts. I realised that the true function of a lawyer was to unite parties riven asunder. The lesson was so indelibly burnt into me that a large part of my time during the twenty years of my practice as a lawyer was occupied in bringing about private compromises of hundreds of cases. I lost nothing thereby - not even money, certainly not my soul".

This has been omitted in the book, which is by American authors who know little about the greatness of Indians. However, Abraham Lincoln, a great and truthful lawyer like Gandhi finds a place in the book. I am fascinated by Earl Warren: "In civilised life, law floats in a sea of ethics. Each is indispensable to civilisation. Without law, we should be at the mercy of the least scrupulous; without ethics, law could not exist".

Does the observation of Prof. Rodell, Yale University, apply only to America or extend its cynicism to India too. He said: "It is pretty hard to find a group less concerned with serving society and more concerned with serving themselves than the lawyers".

The great Justice Holmes did observe: "It cannot be helped, it is as it should be, that the law is behind the times".

But when law is far behind the times, it loses its credibility and utility. Why have the authors not quoted Chief Justice Burger:

"We are approaching the status of an impotent society - whose capability of maintaining elementary security on the streets, in the schools and for the homes of our people is in doubt. At every stage of the criminal process, the system cries out for change".

Let me end on an optimistic note for the young lawyer "There is always room at the top". Doing a review on a book relating to law and living in a country where lawyers and judges hold a high position, I must wind up with the words of Chief Justice Burger:

"A sense of confidence in the courts is essential to maintain the fabric of ordered liberty for a free people and three things could destroy that confidence and do incalculable damage to society: that people come to believe that inefficiency and delay will drain even a just judgment of its value; that people who have long been exploited in the small transactions of daily life come to believe that courts cannot vindicate their legal rights from fraud and overreaching; That people come to believe the law - in the larger sense - cannot fulfil its primary function to protect them and their families in their homes, at their work, and on the public streets".

V. R. KRISHNA IYER

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Features
Previous : Building customer loyalty
Next     : Monograph on an ancient temple