VOLUME V, CHAPTER 4
The Strong and the Weak, Public Legal Education, and Lawyers. Three Positions Where Law Runs
Part One finished the question what is the law and laid ten layers of ground. Part Two takes up how the law runs. This chapter is the head of that part, and it sets out the first three positions an ordinary person runs into the moment the law starts to move, the strong and the weak, the carrying of the law to the public, and lawyers. Part One took the law apart to see it clearly. From this chapter on, we watch it come alive and see where it actually goes, and toward whom.
The first section is the strong and the weak, and it is the deepest cord in the whole running of the law. The real direction the law takes is not decided by its words. It is decided by the structure of power. Power reaches by nature to enlarge itself, and unless something real stands over its head, the law drifts toward the strong. This is the eleventh layer.
The second section is public legal education, the carrying of a made law to the people it will bind. Carried badly, or carried in words no ordinary person can read, the law becomes the private instrument of a few. And carried widely is still not the same as made for the people, because that also depends on whom the law was written for in the first place. This is the twelfth layer.
The third section is lawyers and procedure. Knowing the words of the law cold is not the same as understanding the law. The first is mastery of a tool, the second is grasp of a purpose. Do not mistake hired a lawyer for secured justice. This is the thirteenth layer.
These three sections build from the eleventh layer to the thirteenth, and set out the first three positions an ordinary person meets when the law runs. Walk out of this chapter and you can look at any case, any act of enforcement near you, and ask one thing. Which side is the hand behind this standing on, and is there anything at all standing over its head. The stance has not shifted. It lays out the positions and draws no conclusion, and leaves the judgment to you.
Contents
Section One. The Strong and the Weak, the Deepest Position in the Law.
Section Two. Whom the Law Is Carried To. The Real Position of Public Legal Education.
Section Three. Lawyers and Procedure. Knowing the Words Is Not Understanding the Law.
Credit to the ancestors; the mistakes are mine: Tiger Lyon.