The Place of Justice in LSS
Alexander Hamilton, a founding father of the United State rightly opined, "the first duty of the Society is Justice"
The human society started out to be crude, disorderly, brute and utterly lawless- at least by the description of scholars.
However, human society gradually graduated into the state of civility. Laws were made. Laws were enforced.
The court system was introduced to serve as institution of dispute resolution and the enforcement of rights.
Established principles and popular customs became law. More laws were made. Proclamations and ordinances were issued. All these laws were placed on the courts to apply.
The law is not an end to itself, but a means to Justice.
The courts have, over the years, embodied the dispensation of justice. The effigy of justice is the symbol of true liberty from oppression.
A society without the institution to interpret the law will have rights trampled upon and freedom submerged. A typical description is the dystopian state of the society in George Orwell's Ninety Eighty-Four.
The Law Student's Society has distinguished itself as a sane society with the interest of its members at heart. The Judiciary is duly provided for with the sole duty to be the custodian of liberty.
Lord Mansfield once said:
"True liberty can exist only when justice is equally administered to all."
The House of Lords has set out from inception to see to justice been done. With the application of tact and research, it has decided cases.
Let's sit back and reason. We are the lawyers of the next couple of years. We will be the one ensuring that the court still remains the last hope of the common man. However, it seems we hope to achieve this by the ingestion of thousands of legal authorities.
Oliver Wendell Holmes said: "the life of the law has not been logic, it has been experience." Experience can be gotten by our pursuit of the course of the Justice in our own little way.
Our legal education is to do more than to teach us principles of law. As Socrates said, it should be the kindling of a flame and not the filling of a vessel. Our legal education is to kindle the flame of justice in us.
How can we then kindle the flame of justice in our seemingly little society if we don't see that justice is not just seen to be done but be manifestly and undoubtedly seen to be done?
This question is for you and me.
Some say the House of Lords is not popular. Popularity is not the goal of the House, in fact, as we have learnt from the life of the indefatigable Lord Denning, the life of a judge is a reclusiveness.
The House of Lords is for you and me. It's where a member of the society can see justice been done quick enough to his matter.
It is popular maxim of equity that "delay defeats equity." I say, delay defeats interest. Don't delay, bring the issue, the temple of Justice within the LSS is just a step away.
Remember that self help does not avail, it compounds.
John Ajayi
Justice of the House of Lords
Faculty of Law,
Obafemi Awolowo University.
