The Gazette 1971

to make money, with subservience to the clients' interests. Lawyers are compelled to consider the complexity of life more than most others. As a living thing, the law has been and will continue to be concerned with change. Law must be stable, yet it cannot stay still. You will need to understand the role of the law, not just as it bears on your professional lives, but as it reflects the values of our society and responds to the true changes in those values. It is fallacious to think of lawyers as guardians of tradition — rather they are guardians and watchdogs of orderly change. The achievements of science and technology are awe- some in their reach and promise. In simpler conditions of social life, difficulties were not great, but the wealth of knowledge which science has made available has disclosed ways of doing new things and new ways of doing old things. In elucidating facts for assessment of their legal significance, the lawyer must investigate many highly-refined technical factors in order to deter- mine cause and effect. You will from time to time have to assimilate and comprehend many technical matters unfamiliar to you, and to re-explain them to other non-scientific minds. You will have to defend scientific theories from purely logical attack, and you will have to learn how to distinguish between opinions formed and the ground for forming them. The rule of law There is another area which may cause you much concern. The rule of law once meant that no one is above the law. It offered protection of the law against the use of arbitrary power. To-day, it is a more com- plex concept. It has required a larger meaning and has become recognised as a dynamic concept which should be employed not only to safeguard and advance civil and political rights of individuals in a free society, but also to establish social, economic, educational and cultural conditions under which the legitimate aspir- ations and dignity of each man may be fully realised. For those who lack minimum standards of education and economic security fundamental rights may seem a shadow rather than a substance. The only man who fully understands his problem is the poor man. He hasn't enough and he wants more. Bureaucracy tends to regard the rights of human beings as something not to be considered outside the prerogative of government and to treat the understand- ing of human rights as a governmental concept. It is the lawyer's pride and privilege to resist this develop- ment. Law and the exercise of arbitrary power are in perpetual enmity. Law the guardian of justice and liberty It is, however, also incumbent upon the legal order to have regard to the claim of every individual to have access to the minimum material means whereby he can take advantage of spiritual and political freedom. This calls for critical examination of the conduct not only of those who wield formal authority, but also of the pressure groups and corporate concentrates that exert effective control over the making of important societal decisions. In the course of your day-to-day activities, you will be interpreting the law which creates and regulates these phenomena, and increasingly so, as the years go on. You will be advising clients caught in the upsurge of these events, and if your voice is not heard in protest as the machine spreads the spirit of pervasive anonymity engulfing each man's individuality in a totality that does not care, can you complain if you are labelled as "the apostles of things as they were." The tradition of law which you are expected to up- 69

it is also a means of livelihood. Its function is to defend and promote the existing legal order, the purpose of which is to secure the administration of Justice. The quest of justice Justice is the supreme goal which gives meaning and value to the structure and functioning of society. The quest of Justice is the preservation of the dignity of the person in a free society. There is no enterprise more arduous, and none more noble than this perpetual quest. Law is a means by which society works out its purpose. Its progress is shaped by accepting standards of right conduct. No man's rights are safe until all man's rights are respected. Freedom is not the power of doing what we like, but of doing what we ought. Civilisation, if it means anything, recognises a moral order that keeps man's evil impulses in check. The public good requires the constant search for and adherence to fundamental principles of moral im- port to which even the assertion of private rights must be subordinated. To accept a doubtful doctrine is to legitimise it, and to give it a life of its own to be used by those who practice the exploitation of misunder- standing in the conduct of public debate. Who is better strategically placed than die lawyer to act as inter- preter, catalyst and builder in the agonising search for values which pervades our society to-day? Lawyers have a long tradition of involvement and of leadership in the great issues of every era. We cannot ignore the causes that bear upon justice and order. On a cornice on the Palais de Justice, high above the Seine, are inscribed the words "Hora fugit, stat jus" ("Time flies, the law remains"). Every generation needs inspiration and a renewal of courage. "Where there is no vision, the people perish" (Book of Proverbs). 1 am convinced that it is our profession to which posterity must look for the pre- servation of what is beneficient and cohesive in our society. To-morrow, you will assume the responsibility that is ours to-day. Let it not be said of you, as regret- fully it may be said of us, "the hungry sheep look up and are not fed". Meticulous and conscientious dedication It is, of course, one thing to express lofty sentiments. It is quite another to translate them into practice. It is not given to every architect to build Coventry Cathedral, nor is it given to every lawyer to participate in far-reaching decisions of fundamental concern to the community. The major principles of the law have, however, their roots firmly implanted in the humdrum day-to-day dealings of human beings, and have their origins, indeed their only justification, in meeting the ordinary needs of ordinary people. What may appear to be unspectacular, is the heart and nerve and sinew of the legal profession. The causes and issues with which the lawyer deals in the course of his daily activities, however small, are of supreme importance to someone. It is meticulous and conscientious dedication to the common place task that provides the true evangelism whereby the esteem and prestige of the legal system is to be seen and made manifest. Nothing can so enhance the image of the lawyer as the appreci- ation of a task well done, motivated only by the lawyer's dedication to perfection in the performance of his obligation to his client. Confidence in the administration of Justice is essential to maintain the fabric of ordered society. Inefficiency and delay may drain even a just judgement of its value. The practice of the law calls for a quality of character which is able to reconcile a natural desire