Should an immoral regime rise to power, it is tempting to think lawyers and the rule of law would act as a protective wall. But is this true? Sadly, history suggests not, as John Gould, chair of Russell-Cooke, writes in this week’s NLJ.
He uses the example of Nazi Germany in the 1930s to illustrate the incremental steps by which a nation with a constitution, independent judiciary and developed legal profession was transformed. Article 48 of Germany’s Weimar Constitution which referred to emergency powers, was a key instrument in this tragic process.
Gould, author of The Law of Legal Services, Second Edition (2019, LexisNexis), writes: ‘Dictatorship is not necessarily the product of violence or revolution; sometimes it grows out of democratic constitutions in states which espouse the rule of law and have embedded within them independent lawyers and judges. Although the decline into autocracy may be incremental, that does not mean it is inevitably slow. A handful of years can be enough for even the most civilised of societies to be subverted.’RELATED ARTICLES
