LAW AND JUSTICE
Hayots Ashkhar Daily
29 Oct 2008
Armenia
What is the state without justice?
The recent criminal developments which deprived five people of life
and caused six people to suffer from injuries in the towns of Spitak,
Stepanavan and Yerevan, were an additional and obvious propf that
our society has considerably changed for the worse. In our deepest
conviction, one of the main reasons of such transformation of the
public consciousness is the loss of the people’s faith in justice.
Back in the IV century, Augustine the Blissful wrote, "What is the
state without justice? A band of robbers."
If we recall the history of public transformations, wars, rebellions
and revolutions, we’ll see that all this was very often caused by
the motives of reinstating the ruined justice, as perceived by some
participants of the events which took place in the remote past.
That’s why no transitional government likes the people who struggle
for justice.
Those in power start to complain that they are not allowed to work,
i.e. they are oppressed by the stupid recommendations of those who work
honestly and voice populist slogans saying that the re-distribution of
the spheres of influence will bring no good and so on and so forth. As
a matter of fact, all that is nothing more than concern over one’s
own welfare.
Justice is what each citizen expects from the state. It is in
anticipation of justice towards his/her closest ones that a human
being pays taxes, expresses readiness to take the arms and protect
his state and votes in the elections.
A human being wants to hope that his/her children will have a future
and manage to be a little bit happier than their parents; as to the
grandchildren’s life, it will simply be perfect in all senses.
Furthermore, it will be regrettable if the thief appears in prison,
the officials refrain from plundering others and the one who works
well earns more than the one who doesn’t.
And besides, it is desirable for all the young people to have equal
starting opportunities regardless the purse of their parents, so as
they will be able to enter the university with their knowledge and
the army service will be compulsory for all the conscripts and not
just the ones who are poor.
In short, what all the people want to see in society is equality of
rights vs. primitive equality, e.g. equality of courts, police and
doctors; they desire to see that the human being is evaluated by
his/her human features and not by the trademark of his car or the
gorgeousness of his private residence. A human being wants to feel
that he is a full citizen and not just someone’s hostage on account
of some arithmetical or moral problems.
Such is the general picture of normal people’s ideas about a dignified
and fair life. Isn’t it fair though?
But each person perceives justice in his own way. For instance, some
officials consider that justice means to be paid much, get bribes and
dear presents, be treated with respect and not to be sent to prison for
all kinds of trivial misdemeanors such as theft and illegal practices.
The norms of justice (the definition of what can be considered
fair and what cannot) are not enshrined in any state document. The
concept "justice" can be said to be beyond the domain of the legal
terminology. And the whole collection of laws only defines what is
legal for our state and what isn’t, and what liability is envisaged
for the failure to abide by the laws. That’s all.
Then, we can recall the proverb about the law, which says that the
law is like a high column; you can never jump over it, but you can
circumvent it.
And when the experience of one’s own life adds to that, one will
have no choice but to scratch his neck and ask, "How to live, kind
people? Where to look for justice?"
What to do when, for instance, a gangster who has ruined lots of lives
is conditionally sentenced to several years of imprisonment by the
decision of the court, and the hungry vagabond who has stolen chicken
from the shop is sentenced to imprisonment for a real term of 1.5 year?
So, what comes out? Does that mean that not all are fair in our
reality? Or, is the interpretation of the judges far from our ideas
about justice? Or maybe the concepts of justice and lawfulness are
very often on parallels levels not intersecting with one another,
and we don’t know what we want from the officials, judges, lawmaker
and the country’s top leadership?
If we take a close look on our everyday life, we’ll see that all the
three factors mentioned above are present.
However… ! All that is missing in the state normative acts is present
in the consciousness of the people. Because law is not absolutely
something invented by the army of officials who think about their
own convenience; it is the natural perception of harmony and order,
a perception that is a gift from heaven and over millennia, has
transferred from one generation to another in the form of simple
precepts.