Law and Lawlessness

The University of Chicago Law School recently paid respects to the late Professor David Currie. While I didn't have Professor Currie's as an instructor, his remarks to my graduating class during our hooding ceremony made a distinct impression:

When one of Shakespeare's characters says the first thing to do is kill all the lawyers, it's not another bad joke about the legal profession. It's not Shakespeare himself speaking even in fun. He puts the words in the mouth of a rabble-rousing demagogue who wants to put an end to law and order and liberty and knows it's hard to do while there are courts and judges and lawyers to defend them.It is no less praiseworthy to defend those whom society disdains.

Professor Currie's remarks are not hypothetical. The front page of today's New York Times shows a lawyer -- in full business wear, looking as lawyerly as anyone you'll find in an American court house -- throwing a firebomb. He's one of many: Pakistani Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry is urging lawyers across Pakistan to "convey my message to the people to rise up and restore the Constitution.” Indeed. These lawyers aren't just admirable defending the downtrodden. In the face of national emergency, in defiance of military orders, they've literally taken up arms to defend the very rule of law.

We know that law gives society its fundamental functioning. It's easy to forget that it entrusts the lawyers such a fundamental responsibility. How close are we in the American Bar to being so soberly reminded?