Dear Editor,
I am writing to identify flaws in our current juridical system and to pave a way which we ought to follow for the common good of all mankind. It must stated that the world and everything in it is based on love. And love is defined as follows: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonours others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. (1 Corinthians 13:4–7 NIV). Love here has a moral upright underpinning but in the legal sphere love is the test of negligence. That is when the law recognises that it is duty to prevent harm or not to harm another either by acts or omission.
In this regard, the government as the driving force and main contributor to the legal system ought to remember that justification and truth are established defenses in law. So it ought to stop thinking in ways as to corporal punishment. But should based and focused its act of deterrence on genuine love and care for its citizenry and population. If not the population will continue to have issues of lacking and shortcomings in all areas of life such as cycles of poverty, cycles of crime and delinquency and many other social dilemma that we as right thinking members of society will hope to stop and not continue to flourish in our society. These cycles can only be broken if our systems employed factors to combat all of those breakdowns in family and societal problems with an eye and attitude of love and respect for justice and the rule of law.
Furthermore, it is worthy to note at this juncture what Justice is. Justice is defined by the Blacks Law Dictionary (Fifth Edition) as “to do justice, to see justice done, to summon one to do justice.” The case law of our country’s jurisprudence made it trite law that “justice must not only be done, but must also be seen to be done.” ( R v Sussex Justices ex party Mc Carthy [1924] 1 KB 256). And as a practicing Attorney-at-Law for over seven (7) years now I observed the legal system of Guyana. And it’s my view that we as legal minded persons and all other legal minded individuals involve in the legal jurisprudence of Guyana should in this modern age set a legal jurisprudence based on love as defined in 1 Corinthians 13:4 and the negligence perspective of love which are stated herein above and on the Rule of Law. The Rule of Law is that no man is above the law and every man is subject to the law. When love is spoken of here we mean the love of the kind God intended us to show and gave to all mankind.
What is more is that our laws and more so our prison system need a better reformed perspective in its approach to dealing with the convicts whom for all reasons fell victim to the circumstances of the law. Circumstantial statistics of convicts will show that there is a breakdown right at the point of the societal collapse of the system in which they have fell victim of such as their upbringings and that often equate to poverty, lack of access to education and educated persons. Therefore, our legal system ought to do better if we are to enjoy a good healthy and clean Guyana for all of our citizens.
Public Officers and the prison services ought to, at this modern time, employ persons equipped to tackle the issue of these systems very existence at its root cause and that is at the human behavioural level. And we can see this root cause, without a shadow of a doubt, sprouted these issues due to lack of love, the existence of poverty, failure to respect the rule of law and lack of access to education. Public officers of the criminal justice system must push for a reformation of its prisons and persons who come into incarceration to be exposed to a system based on love as its only factor of reformation of prisoners.
Moreover, we do have qualified counselors and they should be equipped to assist our depleting moral upright population. And the government should without hesitation employ these persons in its services to work at all public offices where its citizens are expected to received service in our legal system and one such public office in our criminal justice that a qualified counselor is expected to be employed at the outset of this reformation spoken of in this article is that of Director of Public Prosecutors (DPP) Office.
In conclusion, I do hope at the earliest that the criminal justice system reflects one of love as the justice of the situation so warrants as the rule of law connotes our subjection and the subjection of our behaviour to the law. Therefore, with this in mind we should all help in fostering a better Criminal Justice System and an overall better Legal System. A state that adopts an administrative procedure of justice, rule of law, love and non-negligent behaviours will play a pivotal role in shaping better citizenry for its country. And that is what we ought to seek to implement in our country. And remember beauty is personal. But love must also be based on pure respect. It is my final note that one should be very careful with our moral choices as persons employed in the legal system. This is for the reason that moral corruption is unhealthy.
Sincerely,
Amoura Giddings
Attorney-at-Law
