The rule of law is evo­lu­tion­ary, it grows case by case. A law there­fore, how­ev­er writ­ten in the books, may be chal­lenged, and in fact will be chal­lenged. Around the world, at one time or an­oth­er it was le­gal to dis­crim­i­nate against some groups. It was once le­gal to have slaves. It was even le­gal to stone some­one to death for sus­pi­cion of adul­tery–well this is ac­tu­al­ly still le­gal in some coun­tries; and this is the point. The law can­not stay still or we will nev­er cor­rect the wrongs in­her­ent in the sys­tem. Every de­ci­sion changes the law. Prece­dents are set by new sit­u­a­tions. This is why Lord Ac­ton is cor­rect, it is es­pe­cial­ly im­por­tant that the law not be "a clois­tered virtue." It is out in the open for all to see, for all to af­fect and be af­fect­ed by.

Civ­il dis­cus­sions, pas­sion­ate plead­ings, learned opin­ions in the pub­lic fo­rum are just as im­por­tant to the process be­cause the law does not stand im­pas­sive. It must re­flect the char­ac­ter, the am­bi­tions and foun­da­tions of the so­ci­ety that it serves. In some cas­es the law is clear-cut, straight­for­ward. In some cas­es things are blurred. This case in­volv­ing the ex­tra­di­tion to the US of Ish­war Gal­barans­ingh and Steve Fer­gu­son has cap­tured the at­ten­tion of the na­tion. We are all lend­ing our voic­es to the dis­cus­sion, and this is the process that will serve to add clar­i­ty, and take our na­tion for­ward. We have reached a tip­ping point with this case, a step in the evo­lu­tion of the law. We are at the cross­roads that his­to­ry re­mem­bers. It is now that the learned voic­es of his­to­ry must make their case. This is when they are most need­ed. Sir El­lis Clarke's tim­ing is per­fect, be­cause this is when we need to hear from him the most.

We are at the height of the crescen­do. It is the voice of rea­son, one to be re­spect­ed that is able to rise above the fray and the dis­qui­et. I do not think that one man's voice in the me­dia can sway the courts. In fact I would tend to have a high­er re­gard for the law than that. The in­sti­tu­tions of the le­gal sys­tem are to be re­spect­ed. As a coun­try, as cit­i­zens, we val­ue the voic­es of peo­ple who have giv­en their en­tire lives to build­ing our le­gal sys­tems, to the cause of jus­tice, to our Con­sti­tu­tion, and to our na­tion. I be­lieve Sir El­lis can on­ly serve to in­spire oth­ers of his ilk to come for­ward and to give their opin­ions. How else are we go­ing to build a fu­ture, in a vac­u­um, in ab­sen­tia of the road along which we walked to get here?

Jus­tice takes root in his­to­ry, and grows with the pas­sage of time.

The sys­tem of law is a self-cor­rect­ing, adap­tive sys­tem that knows when it is out­dat­ed, when it is not all-en­com­pass­ing, when it is dis­crim­i­na­to­ry, when it is wrong even. Every case tests the law from every an­gle, and every day the rules are bet­tered and en­hanced by the fact that the re­al world of all pos­si­bil­i­ties and oc­cur­rences must be tried on the facts of the case. In­evitably, nat­u­ral­ly the law is forced to grow and to ma­ture. It must be amend­ed some­times to take in­to ac­count a sit­u­a­tion that it was not orig­i­nal­ly writ­ten to ful­ly com­pre­hend. It is the way of all re­publics that its cit­i­zen­ry has a voice, and must be heard. That is why our laws are the com­pos­ite of who we are, they are our great equalis­er; we are all treat­ed fair­ly by rights thus­ly civ­il. This is why we wel­come a chal­lenge to our le­gal sys­tem. It on­ly makes us bet­ter.

Win­ston George

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