Judicial Pioneers: Gascoigne of England; Sebutinde of Uganda
Two heroic judges that stood up against a mighty executive
[Image: Retrieved from Reddit.com. Judge Julia Sebutinde of the ICJ has ruled against the policy of the Ugandan government. Twice.]
Thank-you to all those that have voted for my poem Joy to be the Spillwords Publication of the Year. If you haven’t voted, please do so here: https://spillwords.com/vote/ The deadline is tomorrow.
“Happy is the King that has a magistrate endowed with the courage to execute the laws upon such an offender, still more happy in having a son willing to submit to such a chastisement!" (King Henry IV of England)
In the West, India and throughout the free world, we take the separation of powers for granted. We accept unthinkingly that absolute power should not reside in hands of an overmighty executive. Yet all our nations began as tyrannies with subservient judges cowering before the might of an absolute King. It took brave judicial pioneers, in fear of the consequences but with the strength that only justice can provide, to refuse the demands of their political masters. And it took monarchs, with a clear sense of what history demanded, to accept the rulings of their rebellious judges.
Today we meet two judicial pioneers, one historical and one in the present day, one English and one Ugandan, who have placed a stake in the ground and said: Today we make our stand! We, the judiciary, will protect the freedom of society by standing up for our own freedom.
Judicial Hero 1: Sir William Gascoigne. The story of the Aragonese bookshop and the Prince in the prison.
[Image: Prince Henry before Judge Gascoigne. Credit: Fine Art Finder Copyright: Look and Learn / Bridgeman Images]
In a March 2023 that seems long past, I met with two coincidences. Or if you are more religiously inclined, I met with two divinely-prescribed rendez-vous with fate.
On that weekend - when the Israeli legal crisis was reaching its crescendo, an Indian Member of Parliament had been suspended for his exercise of freedom of speech and (with rather less fanfare) the Zaragoza festival of "old literature" had come to the Aragonese capital - I came across a near-200 year old book written in English. The only non-Spanish language book that was on sale. A book published in 1852 entitled "Goldsmith's History of England”. Beautifully and rather poetically written by the standards of modern history books, it was purchased for a well-spent 15 euros.
Coincidence 2. Without intention, I opened up the book at the reign of Henry IV (1399 to 1413 CE). And what should I find? Nothing less than the origins of the rule of law in England and by extension the English-speaking world. For what is the rule of law? To paraphrase Lord Denning: that all people,be they ever so low or be they ever so mighty, be subjected to the same law. From Kings to peasants, the law rules supreme.
About the wrongdoings of Prince Henry (later Henry V of Agincourt fame) and the reaction of the his father the King, it is written:
"The King was not a little mortified at (the) degeneracy in his eldest son, who seemed entirely forgetful of his station...Such were the excesses into which he ran, that one of his dissolute companions having been brought to trial before Sir William Gascoigne, chief justice of the King's bench, for some misdemeanour, the prince was so exasperated at the issue of the trial, that he struck the judge in open court. The venerable magistrate, who knew the reverence that was due to his station, behaved with a dignity that became his office, and immediately ordered the prince to be committed to prison.
When this transaction was reported to the king, who was an excellent judge of mankind, he could not help exclaiming in transport, "Happy is the king that has a magistrate endowed with the courage to execute the laws upon such an offender, still more happy in having a son willing to submit to such a chastisement!" This, in fact, is one of the first great instances we read in English history of a magistrate doing justice in opposition of power; since, upon many former occasions, we find the judges only ministers of royal caprice."
King Henry and his son the Prince led the way in showing us that power submits to justice. Over 600 years later, we are called upon to reaffirm this principle of liberty once more and to protect the law and her courts from the whims of our rulers.
[Image: Israelis marching against planned judicial changes by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, March 2023. Hazem Bader/AFP via Getty Images. Does power submit to the law?]
Judicial Hero 2: Julia Sebutinde. The Ugandan judge who defined the government of an unfree country
[Please become a paid subscriber to continue reading. Or sign up for a free 7 day trial. Or become a Founder Member to sponsor 3 posts to make those posts free for all.]
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Guerre and Shalom to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.