“The end of the law is for the society
as the society fashions the law. Thus, society creates for the law and the law
exists for the society the law ought to be a corrective instrument of social
change and not a clog” ROBERT OBOTE The crux of this paper is to examine and
accentuate on the fact that the law is a strategic and procedural tool for the
engineering and orchestration of the society to meet its various ends. First,
it is important to appreciate the conceptual meaning of law from the layman
perception arid technical orientation.
Thus, law is simply defined as a rule of
conduct which guides human conducts and actions (in the layman’s and general
perception). More technically, law is seen as the aggregate of legislations,
judicial precedents and accepted legal principles; the body of authoritative
grounds for judicial and administrative actions. (Black’s Law Dictionary 7th
Edition, Page 889). With the definition of law put in its proper perspective,
it suffices to point out the essence and importance of law in succinct and
concise terms. To meet this need, Glanville Williams in his book titled “
LEARNING THE LAW” summarises and encapsulates the primal importance of law in
the following words; “Law is the cement of the society and an essential medium
of change.
A knowledge of law increases facility at argument, skill in language
as well as an understanding, It also improves one’s understanding and
appreciation of social affairs” The above postulation constitutes one of the
numerous importance and roles played by law in the society. The central thesis
or theme of this paper which is to the effect that law is a strategic tool for
social engineering is the noble position and idea of a foremost legal scholar,
Roscoe Pound in his essay titled “More about the nature of law”. He posited
that law should be a viable instrument of social engineering and progressive
societal change. Since the time he made this classical and authoritative
statement about the law, many legal scholars, experts and researchers have made
constant reference to the statement in a bid to build upon and consolidate the
statement in view of the present modern realities of rapid wind of change
blowing across the globe.
With this noble idea in mind, Roscoe Pound wrote
further in his essay hereinbefore stated that “There are two ideas that run
through the definition of law; one an imperative ideal, an ideal of a rule laid
down by law-making organ of a politically organised society, deriving its
authority from the authority of the sovereign; and the other a rational or
ethical ideal, an ideal of a rule of right and justice deriving its authority
from the intrinsic reasonableness or conformity to ideals of right and merely
recognised, not made by the sovereign” Through these ideals- the imperative and
the rational or ethical- as espoused above, law play an indispensable part in
the promotion and engendering of progression and the effecting of necessary
social change in the society.
Sufficient here to say that engineering is the
act of plotting or contriving to bring about a particular result or outcome.
Thus, engineer means to plan, frame or orchestrate. So, if the law is to be
treated and seen as a strategic tool for social engineering, it denotes
that it is the means through which the society can be properly planned, set and
orchestrated to bring about the necessary and much needed positive change,
development, advancement and improvement. Let me say here that I quite wonder
time and again what the essence of law is if not to orchestrate the society to
fulfill the ends of its existence. Why law if not to make society more
adaptable and responsive to changes and alterations in the ideals and
principles of the society. It exists in order to cover and meet up with new
challenges evolving in the society by way of advancement in all facets of life.
Socially, it prescribes socially acceptable conducts as well as conducts that
are reprehensible with appropriate punitive measure attached thereto
Economically, it sets acceptable standards and sets rules and regulations for
forming business organisations or associations as well as providing for
procedures of winding up of business associations. Politically, law, with the
courts being an inseparable integral part of it, exists not to determine the
success of political process but also to regulate government agencies whose
successes culminate accrue to the overall political process. The aforestated
are without prejudice to other innumerable functions performed by law. Law, as
it is, comprises several processes and institutions of which a court of law
forms an integral and inseparable part.
Thus, a court of law is an established
institution for the fair and just determination of conflicts from perceived
disturbances between levels of government and private organisations, between
private individuals in the society, among others. The foregoing, no doubt,
culminates in the sacred, sacrosanct duty of the court. If the above duty of
the court is viewed in direct correlation to what the law performs, it can be
concluded that law exists to forestall occurrences of conflicts and disputes
which, when not properly managed and checked, could result in the disruption of
law and order, erosion of the moral system and a resort to armed weaponry to
settle scores. Indubitably, if this state of affairs persists, there could be a
return to the popular state of nature known as “Leviathan” as envisaged by
Thomas Hobbes wherein “Life is poor, nasty, brutish, short and solitary”.
Thus,
the end of law in this regard through the full machinery and operation of the
courts of law is to obviate the possibility of emergence of leviathan and
engender peaceful co-existence and stability in the society. Now speaking from
the angle of the Nigerian experience, it is apt to say here that the law should
not exists in vacuum but must rise up to the occasion of being the saviour of
the common man in restoring sanity and engineering societal progressive change
and growth in all ramifications. Appropriately, it is gladdening that aggrieved
parties have, in recent years, abandoned their arsenal of munitions and resort
to thuggery in achieving their selfish ambitions and have had recourse to the
courts of law to have their fate determined. This means a great burden upon the
court to do justice.
This duty of similarly re-affirmed by Justice Oputa when
he asserted that”...the end of the law is justice” Thus, justice must be done
by the court though the heavens should fall (Fiat justitia, ruat coelum). And
justice stated here is not the technical justice that the court rings its bells
almost always but the substantive and substantial justice from the fair and
humane application of the law. In furtherance of the objective of law to foster
societal progression, the needed warning directed to the court of law is that,
in the face of the numerous pending matters before them, justice must not be
slaughtered on the altar of technicalities. This is so because justice is what
the individual (i.e the common man) and the society in general is out looking
for. Nothing more than justice. Justice is law in action and technicality is a
clog to the wheel of justice.
To add more steam to this argument, the Supreme
Court declared in Oden v. FRN (2008) 13 NWLR 9 Pt. 1103 1 .R 6 that
“Dispensation of justice on the pedestal of technicalities is no longer
fashionable” In addition, in Omoju v. FRN (2008) 7 (Pt. 1085) SC 38 R.8 per
Tobi sc at page 57, paras D-G, His Lordship emphatically remarked that “Courts
of law have long moved away from the domain or terrain of doing technical
justice to doing substantial justice. Technical justice, according to the legal
colossus, is not justice but a caricature of it. Caricature are not the best
presentations or representations, substantial justice is justice personified
and is secreted in the elbows of cordial and fair jurisprudence with a human
face and understanding. It pays to follow it as it brings about invaluable
dividends in any legal system anchored or predicated on the rule of law, the
lifeblood of democracy”.
From the foregoing, it can be safely asserted here
that once the courts, a custodian of the law, can be up and doing in the
performance of its sacred and sacrosanct duty of dispensing justice (not
substantial justice), then the law would then be perceived as an active and
potent force of progressive and positive change. Oftentimes, in a bid to
dispense the justice, unnecessary delays by way of endless interlocutory
applications should not be permitted whatsoever. Pursuant to this, the
conclusion was properly echoed in Mohammed Hussan. Rimi v. INEC and Arch.
Umar
Jibril (2004) 15 NWLR (Pt. 895) CA 121 P.12 where the court of Appeal declared
that “As a matter of deliberate policy to enhance urgency, cases are expected
to be devoid of procedural clogs that cause delays in the dispensation of
substantive justice”. Thus, procedural delays should not be permitted by the
courts to come in the way of doing justice flowing from the aphorism that
“Justice delayed is justice denied” As matter of fact, in the Nigerian terrain,
the law had been very active and vibrant in dealing with cases of corruption,
money laundering and terrorism by way of promulgation of the Anti-corruption
Act 2000, Money Laundering (Prohibition)
Act 2004 and the terrorism prevention Act 2011 These statutory instruments have
laid down a proper legal and regulatory framework for nipping all of these
social maladies or ills into the bud.
There may not have concrete results in
its implementation as envisaged in the whole intendment of the comprehensive
Acts but the activation of its intended purport of these statutory instruments
is not too ate. It will not be out of place to declare here that the law is
consistently providing for contemporaneous and novel issues like climate
change, environmental problems, investment and securities business, debt recovery,
electronic commerce, to mention a few. In conclusion, it is apt to say that law
ought not just be but is a strategic and effective tool of progressive social
engineering. The scholarly views of Robert Omote in his paper titled “Law ought
to be an instrument of social engineering” would suffice as the concluding
remarks on this subject matter.
He said “A twin vibrant Bench and Bar void of
infractions, intrigues is the needed antidote for the rejuvenation of the
Nigerian society . In the face of the daily drift to the Nigerian Leviathan,
the law ought to be a corrective instrument of social change and not a clog”. I
would like to add here that law should not just fold its hands will various
ills are perpetrated, it should not acts like a toothless bulldog having
nothing to dom. Rather, it should stamp its authority and ground as the ever
virile force of orchestrating social revolution and rejuvenation in a strategic
and procedural manner.