passion for justice: revisited

8/10/2019 Passion for Justice: Revisited

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Passion For What? (What I Talk About When I Talk About Justice)

BY: DANIEL JOHN FORDAN

Fiat justitia ruat caelum. Let justice be done though the heavens fall the words that welcomed

Justice Pompeyo Diaz in his courthouse as the newly appointed judge of the Court of First

Instance for the Province of Rizal. Letjusticebe done. Justicebig word! In the world that we

live in right now, the word justice undeniably feels quite distant, unreal even. With all the

injustice around us, the concept of justice seems to be slipping farther and farther away. Indeed, a

saddening reality. Fellow graduates, let this serve as a strong reminder for us. This is precisely

why were here: to get rid of the injustice, to deliver justice. Now that we are going out of the

walls of the academia, the real world and its very real problems await us.

Justice Pompeyo Diaz once said that the law is the instrument used to discover the truth so that

justice may be served. As men of law then, our mission is to use our knowledge of the law so that

we can have a just society. We are institutionally tasked to seek the truth and to serve justice or,

in the words of Justice Diaz, to render each man what is his due. If the institution has already

established solutions against injustice, why then is injustice still freely roaming around wreaking

havoc everywhere? Amartya Sen may have the answer to this odd situation: behavioral

transgressions. Rooted from the Indian idea of justice known as nyaya, behavioral transgressions

rather than institutional shortcomings may be the source of this injustice. Actually, it makes a lot

of sense. Not just because one is tasked to do something, does not mean he will actually do the

task. This may be what is happening to some men of law. As Justice Diaz have pointed out, those

without conscience will twist the law to hide and distort the truth in order to ridicule justice.

Nyaya the idea of justice concerning with the actual outcome rather than the theoretical

possibility,a perspective focused on the actuality, the outcome, the tiny details. If we lookclosely into the legal profession, we may find these conscienceless men lurking around. And if

we do find them, let us avoid them at all cost. Avoid getting close with them. Avoid becoming

like them. Rather, let us follow our mandate and render each man what is his due.


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Once we actually do what we ought to do, is justice assured then? I think that to answer in the

affirmative is naivety. The disparity between what ought to be and what actually is is only one

of the many dimensions of injustice. For instance, what if there is indeed a structural flaw in our

society? An error in the system. A mistake in the institution. Surely, a problem like that cannot besolved simply by obeying the institutional commands. In this case, the answer may lie in John

Rawls theory of justice. According to him, laws and institutions no matter how efficient and

well-arranged must be reformed or abolished if they are unjust. In other words, correct

execution will never be able to solve a problem brought about by the wrong instruction. A

change of instruction then, a fundamental change in the institution is in order. In the context of

injustice in the legal profession, perhaps something wrong in the legal education? Or inadequate

institutional measures against those conscienceless men of law? Whatever it may be, we must

remain critical of our institutions. Until we find what Rawls describes as the reflective

equilibrium, we must continuously develop and transform our laws and institutions. As Therese

Perez & Rufino Juan IV have pointed out, lawyers, as officers of justice must ceaselessly widen

the law until it can truly create justice.

Now that we have cleared out how justice may be delivered, let us now go into the topic of

justice itself. The peculiar thing about justice is its recursive nature. As we have observed, justice

can only be delivered when the actual and the theoretical aligns. In addition to that, it can only be

served when the laws and the institutions are not unjust. However, when you think about it, the

alignment of actual and theoretical is justice in itself in accordance to the idea of nyaya.

Likewise, reaching the reflective equilibrium to have a just institution is a manifestation of

justice. As we can see, justice is required so that justice may be delivered. Given this view,

something seems to be missing when it comes to the concept of justice. Oh, right. Endpoints.

Where do we start? What are we delivering really?

Let me offer you a solution to this apparent dilemma. Look at justice not as a single thing but as

a process a continuous recursive process. Wikipedia defines recursion as the process of

repeating items in a self-similar way. What does this mean? Let me show you an example. To

those who have mobile internet, try this. If you google the word recursion, google is going to say,


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ought to do, when you cease to criticize and transform unjust laws and institutions, when you

start to feel numb about the injustice around you, just remember that passion. Hold on to that.

Never let go.

Farewell and thank you!

passion for justice: revisited

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