The Judge does not make the law. It is people that make the law. Therefore if a law is unjust, and if the Judge judges according to the law, that is justice, even if it is not just.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the distinction between law and justice, highlighting that laws created by people can be unjust.
Alan Paton's quote explores the complex relationship between law and justice, asserting that judges interpret laws rather than create them. It suggests that when judges enforce unjust laws, their decisions may still be legally valid, yet they do not necessarily reflect true justice. The quote challenges us to reflect on the morality of laws and the role of individuals in shaping justice within society.
In practice
In a debate about legal reforms, this quote can highlight the importance of ensuring fairness in laws.
Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that's the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing. Nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him if he gives too much.
Ask yourself not if this or that is expedient, but if it is right.
One day in Johannesburg, and already the tribe was being rebuilt, the house and soul being restored.
What broke in a man when he could bring himself to kill another? What broke when he could bring himself to thrust down the knife into the warm flesh, to bring down the axe on the living head, to cleave down between the seeing eyes, to shoot the gun that would drive death into the beating heart?
It is not permissible to add to one's possesions if these things can only be done at the cost of other men. Such development has only one true name, and that is exploitation.
If you wrote a novel in South Africa which didn't concern the central issues, it wouldn't be worth publishing.
Fraud is the ready minister of injustice.
There are always interests that are furthered by war. Therefore, those who have power and influence can also stop them... we should not accept any excuses from those in power.
There is a spiritual hunger in the world today - and it cannot be satisfied by better cars on longer credit terms.
Little islands are all large prisons: one cannot look at the sea without wishing for the wings of a swallow.
I suspect that even most conservatives would prefer to live in the kind of world conjured up in the liberals' imagination rather than in the kind of world we are in fact stuck with.
Equality and prosperity shouldn't be seen as enemies of each other, but as partners. One reinforces the other.
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