LET’S BLIND ARMENIA’S JUSTICE
BY GAREN YEGPARIAN
asbarez
Friday, March 23rd, 2012
Everyone has seen those statues of Lady Justice (derived from various
Egyptian, Greek, and Roman deities), with the scale in one hand, a
sword in the other, and a blindfold over her eyes. Most have probably
not given it a second thought. Yet that which is represented by the
figure is one of the things the Republic of Armenia (RoA) most needs.
Everyone is also aware of the corruption and antics that plague
government, business, and the common man in the RoA. Whether
that’s through personal experience, friends’ stories, news sources,
international assessments, YouTube videos, or some other means, it,
too, like Lady Justice, probably elicits little response two decades
into the RoA’s life. Yet, that attention is one of the things the
RoA sorely needs.
The development of civil society is trumpeted as the means to
establishing a truly democratic order in newly democratizing states.
This is a multifaceted, difficult, and long-term process. It struck me
at the panel discussion about Teghood that many of the ills plaguing
the RoA today, are not so distant historically in the U.S.
Unfortunately, all the things that need to be done to achieve a
better society are intertwined and there is no pre-set sequence,
formula to arrive at the desired state of affairs.
So I want to address one aspect of what makes a society function
relatively freer of corruption-the courts. By all accounts, Armenia’s
courts do anything but fairly and equally administer the law,
without corruption, avarice, prejudice, or favor- as symbolized by
Lady Justice. But how do we achieve this?
The judges in the RoA are dependent on, and beholden to, the political
branches of government for their positions and livelihood. The key
is to break that dependency. So why not create a new constitutional
entity composed of disinterested parties that funds the judicial
system and oversees it to prevent corrupt practices and conflicts
of interest, without getting involved in the actual administration
of justice? It would be exceedingly difficult to maintain that last
distinction. This would be no mean feat, but done right, might help
break the web of odious judicial practices.
What I envision is a body composed of individuals from different parts
of the Diaspora who hail from the legal professions- judges, lawyers,
legislators (preferably retired), bringing to bear the experience
gained by functioning within the various legal systems in effect in
places as diverse as Argentina, Egypt, France, Greece, India, Iran,
Lebanon, Russia, the U.S. etc. Imagine, Armenians from the places
overseeing the behavior (not actual judgments) of the judges in our
homeland. What a wealth of knowledge, conscience, and intellect that
would be, all in the service of our young and developing state!
As already noted, it would be tremendously difficult to implement
such a project. The oversight body would have to be given the power
to remove judges from office. They would also serve as the source of
pay, which means a serious funding commitment from the Diaspora.
Please express your views on this.
I apologize to readers, and thank the person who caught two errors in
my article two weeks ago. For the record, I misidentified the states
represented by two anti-Armenian members of Congress, Dan Burton is
actually from Indiana, Dan Boren from Oklahoma.
From: A. Papazian