O Freedom! What art thou? O Justice! Where art thou?
JUSTICE! Is there justice in Ghana? A remarkable definition of justice has been proffered by scholars who invariably go back in time to Roman political and juridical systems to find out what they thought and how they acted.
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In Institutes of Justinian, a codification of Roman Law from the sixth century AD, justice is defined as ‘the constant and perpetual will to render to each his due’.
Four discrete elements are discernible in the definition.
First, “render to each his due”: this means that at the ultimate of any relationship, it is how the ordinary person (or institution, or group) is treated, in terms of whatever must be given him, as of right, that determines whether justice has been done or not in the matter.
For instance, in the allocation of housing, health care, educational facilities AND salary increments, is it justice to give one district a hospital, and refuse the same to another district? Is it justice to give a pay rise to, say, parliamentarians and deny the same to public servants?
Conversely, it is just to pay compensation to a person wrongfully imprisoned? How society treats the citizens on the street reflects their sense of justice and the value given to the citizens.
Secondly, with respect to “each his due”: what is due a person is what the law prescribes as a right that is enforceable on the person’s behalf; it admits of no discretion.
What is due could be a statutory right or privilege, a social custom or religious convention, or any practice that has the effect of a “law” that a person expects to be activated in his interest.
For instance, if a person lodges a complaint at the police station that someone is threatening his life, it is dutiful for the police to act immediately by investigating the matter.
If the police dismiss the complaint as a sham, and the person is actually harmed, then the police would have acted unjustly, by failing to give the person his due security.
Thirdly, the “constant and perpetual will” means a referable standard that provides the security of trust that what has been done to A with respect to the standard, or law, would equally be applied to B.
In all circumstances of events, the question is: What does the law say? What are the accepted procedures? What are the best practices? In the answers given, we notice the constant and perpetual will to do justice.
Lastly, there is an agency of application; that is, someone must apply the law, or do what is right and appropriate.
Without an agency, it cannot be said that injustice has occurred, as in an earthquake where devastations have taken place without anybody’s hand in the tragedy.
However, it is in the provision of assistance that one could complain about discrimination of sorts and say that such and such a person (agent) has acted unjustly.
Justice-conscious
With these principles in mind, let’s look within and ask whether we in Ghana are justice-conscious or not.
Let’s begin with Ghana’s judiciary.
It exists for the administration of justice in our nation.
However, the quality of justice administered shows whether justice exists or not in Ghana.
Justice delivery comprises the following elements: the complainant, the police (the State), the Lawyer, the Court and the Judge.
In any situation where one of these elements procedurally frustrates the early prosecution and determination of a case or refuses to advocate on someone’s behalf or influences any person along the chain to give a biased judgment, muddles up facts or hides documents needed for the truth to be known, then injustice is said to take place, and what is due a person may not be given him. In any such case, the agents of justice are those who have acted wrongly.
Remarkably, God is passionate about justice in the affairs of man.
"So justice is driven back, and the righteousness stands at a distance: truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter... The Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice" (Isa 59:14-15 NIV).
They make many promises, take false oaths and make agreements; therefore, lawsuits spring up like poisonous weeds in a ploughed field" (Hos 10:4 NIV).
However, justice goes beyond juridical systems and procedures.
Political decisions taken by governments in terms of providing social amenities like hospitals, schools, roads, and the like, reflect the sense of justice of the government.
If one political party provided a community with a school, but could not equip it before leaving power, and the incoming party neglected to provide equipment for the school, it would amount to injustice against the community so deprived of a good school.
The examples could be multiplied on and on.
Our traditional authorities, who must be beacons of moral integrity, also compromise justice when they resell plots of land to two or more persons and then leave them to strangle each other financially in court. Such cases are rife.
And what should we say when the same traditional authorities allow galamsey on their lands? It is another feature of injustice against the economic interests of the people.
The gaping wounds on the lands are ecological crimes against Mother Earth; call that ecological injustice!
Injustice
In several scenarios that we could paint, injustice is present whenever the legitimate needs or expectations of a person are denied him by someone tinkering with the law or processes to deny that person his due.
Conversely, a person’s right to service could be so mutilated that the only way he could come by the service is to bribe someone for it, or pay outrageous fees for it; this is injustice.
Our sense of justice is evident in how we plan our lands and towns because it is a form of injustice for one person to plant his house on a space marked out for a road, and nothing is done about it.
Justice
Justice has such a subtlety about it that we could easily overlook so many things that cumulatively impact our lives and make life difficult for most people.
Like freedom, we could also say that Justice is Law! Ghana, as it exists now, is a faraway reality where justice is concerned.
When parliamentarians carve themselves ex gratia every four years, several times larger than public servants who have been working for 20 to 30 years of dedicated service, who would not say that this is a feature of injustice?
The parliamentarians make the law to suit them, and such selfishness is a form of injustice.
Partisan politics has worsened injustices in Ghana.
Let me end this way: The Freedom and Justice Ghana committed itself to are noble and high ideals for any nation.
Let’s keep them.
But, at all times, we must ensure that freedom does not lead to licentious behaviour disruptive of the common good of the Ghanaian; neither must it cause disaffection for the Government and dissuasive of our allegiance to the nation.
Justice is impaired in any situation where a person (group, government) consciously denies others what is due them, and maintains inefficient systems and laws that frustrate the realisation of the good for people.
Martin Luther King Jnr, the Black American Civil Rights leader, made a telling statement about justice worth ending this article with.
Says he:
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable web of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.
Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.
(Letter from Birmingham, in Alabama jail. April 16, 1963)
The writer is a lawyer.
E-mail: [email protected]
