Ever since my days as a law student, I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of law and right. Back in those days, I had always thought that law is intrinsically fair. It has to be fair. Studying great authors and thinkers like St Thomas Aquinas I realised however that this is not always the case.

Law and justice don’t always go hand in hand. One can have a law that legislates freedom, while it protects the people against the State’s excesses. On the other hand, one can have a law that authorises the State to infringe basic human freedoms, or legalise discrimination. They are both laws, but one is fair while the other isn’t.

But what is fair? What is justice? Everyone acts in the name of justice. Even the greatest dictators of our time, like Hitler, Pinochet, Massera and Videla (during whose time in power in Argentina thousands from the opposition mysteriously disappeared) always acted in the name of justice. One of history’s greatest ironies is how the Nazi soldiers had inscribed on their uniform buckle the words Gott mitt uns (God is with us).

Various are the schools of thought that debate the origins of justice. I tend to agree with a school of thought that argues in favour that every one of us has the capacity to distinguish right from wrong. This is confirmed in basic norms and values which transcend cultures. One doesn’t necessarily need to be Catholic to understand that murder, incest, theft or rape are intrinsically wrong.

Lately I read Gherardo Colombo’s book, a former Italian judge, which deals with “Rules”. Colombo is remembered in cases that made history, like Loggia P2, Mani Pulite, Tangentopoli and others that shaped the Italian political scenario of the 1990s. He resigned from the bench last year as he intends to lecture and write about the subject of justice and law, after, as he admits himself, he felt disappointed by the administration of justice, and how he didn’t manage to improve it from within.

What truly struck me in his book, in which he argues about what is right, what is justice and the differences between societies that either protect or violate human dignity, is the importance that the citizen should know why he or she should abide by the law. In his own words: “La giustizia non puo funzionare se il rapporto tra i cittadini e le regole e’ malato, sofferto, segnato dall’incomunicabilita’. La giustizia non puo’ funzionare se i cittadini non comprendono il perche’ delle regole.”

(Justice cannot function if the relationship between the citizens and rules is sick, difficult, based on lack of communication. Justice cannot function if the citizens do not understand the need to have rules.)

And this is what we need to stress. We need to educate and inform why law enforcement takes place. An informed public will collaborate further in the upkeep of the rule of law.

And without the rule of law, there isn’t democracy.

Dr Jason Azzopardi is Parliamentary Secretary in the Finance, Economy and Investment Ministry

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