THE LAW AND PUBLIC CONSCIENCE

Waikato Independent, Volume XLV, Issue 6233, 2 May 1949, Page 4

THE LAW AND PUBLIC CONSCIENCE

THE EDITOR'S COMMENT.

IN an address appropriately called "Law and the Public Conscience," Mr A. K. North? K. C, .drew attention at the Dominion legal conference recently to a matter whiqh very rightly is causing increasing concern in this and perhaps in every other country, for it is becoming increasingly, and even alarmingly certain that elements are in operation which by non-observance and even defiance >of hitherto accepted principles are bringing the law into disrepute.

Generally it can be conceded that if the citizen is to enjoy harmonious community and national life, it must be with--in definable principles devised to protect the group as a corporate entity and to ensure fair dealings between individuals within that group. The law is no more than the statement of a code of conduct, and it arises in a democratic parliamentary system enabling the community to regulate the course of law-making arid thereby the transaction of a ccrde capable of having acceptance and respect. If on the contrary, sectional groups place themselves outside the operation of such a code, it really becomes a defiance of the law, and if the public condones any breaches of the civil contract there is soon created a state of chaos and anarchy —a reversion to lawlessness. From such a condition there will soon emerge a dictatorship, with arbitrary rule by the person or group that assumes the power to enforce compliance with its own selected codes. With that there automatically disappears the sovereignty of the Government, Parliament becomes . a mockery, and the whole process of law enforcement falls under the dictator's rule.

'There has been no lack of evidence that respect for law and the enforcing of civil contract is on the decline. ''Over the last few years," Mr North commented, "we have seen most bare-faced attempts, to bring about a combination between great unions with the object of bringing the nation to its knees, so that demands resting on force, and not law, would have to be met." This is a sweeping generalisation, but the reality cannot be hidden of the attempts to destroy the principle of arbitration in industrial disputes, and the principle that an industrial award is a civil contract binding on the'signatory parties-.' Fortunately, at? the recent crisis over the carpenters' dispute has shown, there is a large body of union opinion which upholds the principle of adherence to the law.

Not only in the industrial sphere, but in the administration of criminal law; there has been too much evidence of lack of respect for law enforcement. 'On repeated occasions in recent months public feeling has been aroused by the relative lightness .of penalty imposed for serious offences, and the safety of woman in particular has been questioned. Citizens are entitled to assume that their persons and their property will be protected from those who do not respect the laws of social conduct, and it can hardly be said that law-abiding citfzens can confidently make such an assumption nowadays. " Mr North's comments extended from the field of social and industrial relations to that of security for the nation as a corporate entity, and his remarks in this connection demand earnest consideration.

"To-day in almost every country in the democratic world," he said, "some citizens are openly saying things which fall or nearly fall, within the definition of treason." Even "within our own gates." he went on, "we see disruptive elements at Avork intent on undermining the State. On all sides.we see people who either hold certain laws in contempt or who decline to obey laws they find irksome or with which they are not in agreement." This is a regrettable but inescapable commentary on the public conscience of the time, and it is the more regrettable because of recent suggestions that there has been interference, on a higher level than the individual, with the administration of justice." Talking of the functions of the judiciary in New Zealand a few mouths ago, the former Chief Justice, Sir Michael Myers, referred to instances of encroach 1 ment, by statute and by regulation, on the jurisdiction of the courts. If the Government itself does not strictly uphold the principles of law it is little wonder that there should be a general decline in public conscience relating to law enforcement, and in such circumstances a serious doubt can arise whether the principles of common justice are to prevail.