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Speakers at Bahá’í law conference explore moral implications of justice

The Honourable Patrick LeSage, former Chief Justice of the Ontario Supreme Court, dispensed sound advice to the more than 90 participants who attended the closing lecture of the 5th Annual North American Bahá’í Law Conference in Toronto, Ontario, this past weekend.

The conference, which ran from 23 to 25 March 2007, took place at the Faculty of Law of the University of Toronto and attracted numerous Bahá’í lawyers as well as law professors and students.

LeSage reminisced about his career as a lawyer, prosecutor, chief justice, and judge. He spoke in particular about the importance of upholding the rule of law while not letting go of one’s fundamental beliefs and moral principles, even when those principles may run counter to state law, as, he remarked, sometimes happens.

Noting that there is no place in society for disobedience to the law, since anarchy is worse than an imperfect legal system, LeSage referred to the historical figure Sir Thomas More, who upheld the law but also refused to abandon his fundamental spiritual convictions, even at the expense of his life.

In reviewing his own years of prosecuting criminals and handing down judgments, LeSage emphasized his belief that education, far more than prison terms, is the best answer to reducing crime. His comments resonated with lawyers and students in the hall, many of whom were reminded of ’Abdu’l-Bahá’s own comments on the issue during his trip through North America in 1912.

The talk followed another well-attended lecture the previous day by René Provost, Director of the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism at McGill University, and Payam Akhavan, Associate Professor of Law at McGill. They addressed the issue of law and justice as it relates to society’s evolving conception of civilization and people’s self-identity, in a discussion entitled “The Global Search for the Authentic Self: Reflections on Law, Culture, and Human Rights.”

A day earlier, Layli Miller-Muro began the conference with an address on the issue of violence against women, based on her experience as founder and executive director of the Tahirih Justice Center in Washington, D.C. Miller-Muro argued that, as important as it is to create laws that counteract the injustices against women, changing attitudes among the general public about the equality of women and men is also crucial.

Presaging Patrick LeSage’s comments two days later, Miller-Muro noted that lawyers have the responsibility to do all they can with the resources they have to help those in a less fortunate position in society and to work towards improving the justice system so that their inner moral convictions become increasingly reflected in the social structures around them.

She also urged the legal practitioners in the audience to consider donating some of their time to performing pro bono work in service of those facing injustice and handicapped by a lack of access to adequate finances and representation.

The Tahirih Justice Center, which was founded in 1997, provides legal assistance to women who have suffered human rights abuses.

The law conference also featured panel discussions on aboriginal law and policy in Canada and the United States; Bahá’í consultation and its potential to contribute to the practice of law; and the evolution of international law.

This was the first time that the law conference was held in Canada. While it has always drawn the contributions of Canadian Bahá’í legal experts, the conference has been held in the United States in previous years.