Law and Science Choreography

Dr. C.V. Raman's lecture on 'Why the sky is blue' delivered at Community Science Centre in Amhedabad, in December 1968, is documented by Chandralekha, the dancer, so beautifully, along with the black and white pictures of the scientist by Dashrath Patel. ¹ She heard the Nobel laureate declare: "The best way to answer a question is to ask another... One thing leads to another. That is the essence of science. You must go where it leads you."² The choreographer took the message to heart. The book informs that Chandralekha, who made those notes, studied law in Mumbai, before moving to dance in Chennai. Even a mere still from her dances could enthrall and liberate - the inspiring book, meant for the young, is probably her best work! There could be no doubt that Raman's talk infused new blood into choreography that she pursued with the passion of a scientist. ³

The man who gave Raman the opportunity to make science a full-time career was Sir Ashutosh Mookerjee - who was a lawyer and then became a judge of the Calcutta High Court. The other scientists promoted by the learned judge include Satyendranath Bose and Saha. All this was possible because of the judge's keen interest in science and mathematics. Dr. G. Venkatraman credits the judge with contributing to science by encouraging at a crucial juncture, three of the best physicists the country had produced then: Bose, Saha and Raman.⁴

Bhagaban Chandur Bose, was Deputy Magistrate of Faridpur and in charge of the law and order in several villages. His son, SC Bose, the most illustrious scientist India has ever seen, grew up drawing endless inspiration from his father. The basic qualities shine as a scientist were imbibed from his father who kept his curiosities alive and well nourished.

'I saw so-and-so to-day : why was that ?'-was a standard type of question, and always patiently answered when possible; yet often-perhaps most important and educative of all for the future investigator-with a candid confession of ignorance, and never any of the evasion, or pretence of knowledge beyond a child's, which is so common a discouragement to children from parents less frank and wise. 'I don't know, my son : we cannot tell; we know so little about nature!' was thus a frequent reply : but instead of lowering the child's respect, as foolish parents and teachers fear, this only aroused further wonder, and kept curiosity and observation alive. In such ways it is that the questioning child later becomes the scientific man : and what scientific man worth the name in history is more than such a child of larger growth? The 'advancement of Science' is no such easy matters as founders of its schools and departments suppose. It requires a corresponding supply of men of science; these again are not the mere products of specialist training. Scientific training can only be of real service to the few survivors amidst the too common home and family indifference to knowledge. That is only advanced by those who, when children, were encouraged to observe and question, and were not silenced and dulled for life, like their elders before them, with 'Don't ask silly questions!' or evaded with 'I have no time!'⁵

The choreography between law and science should be fostered more than ever before now.


¹ Chandralekha and Dashrath Patel, "Why the sky is blue: Dr. C.V. Raman talks about science", Tulika, December, 1968.
² ibid.
³ Chandralekha quotes Dr. C.V. Raman, word for word from her notes in this UK TV interview at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR2Um0sljkw. The Guardian (at http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2007/feb/09/guardianobituaries.india noted that "Chandralekha became a crusader for equality, human rights, women's rights, secularism, pluralism and the environment", and as this was through her dances, she took choreography to new levels.
⁴ Dr. G. Venkatraman, "Bose and his statistics", 1992, Sangam Books.
⁵ Patrick Geddes, "The Life and Work of Sir Jagadis C. Bose", available online at http://books.google.co.in/books?id=W41WqmzoGQ8C

Bretts Road, Salem

Philip Mason finished his book, "The Men Who Ruled India", with these words:

"When all has been said, one simple point remains. It was put clearly by Lord Wavell in an informal speech made after he left India. The English would be remembered, he believed, not by this institution or that, but by the ideal they left behind of what a district officer should be. At the other end of the long line, Warren Hastings had expressed a similar thought. 'It is on the virtue,' he had said, 'not the ability, of their servants that the Company must rely.' And if today the Indian peasant looks to the new district officer of his own race with expectation of receiving justice and sympathy, that is the memorial of the English."¹

"Bretts Road, Salem" is one such memorial. Harry Augustus Bretts, was the collector of Salem district, between 1853 and 1862 (called Baramahal then). His achievements:

He was a great administrator who brought in sweeping reforms in land taxes.
He levied less tax for poor yielding lands under ‘Less Fertile’ classification.
It was he who abolished the sukavasi inam (free lands for living), a free distribution of lands to Brahmins and Muslims in the district and instead introduced samathuvapuram concept by making all people live in all places amicably.
Bretts was also responsible for bringing out the first government gazette.
He brought out The Salem Gazette in 1859. Historian Le Fanu called Bretts a man of impeccable character and straight forward in administration and deliverance of justice and architect of many people welfare schemes.²

The Government of Tamil Nadu would like to rename "Bretts Road" as "Central Library Road". The proposal serves no useful purpose other than erasing the memorial to Harry Augustus Bretts, who ably served Salem as its Collector. Philip Mason did not live to hear of this tragic move.³ However, the Indian Civil Service has undergone radical changes after the British left India, and the move to rename is perhaps only the last nail on the notion of virtuous service.

Baramahal then included Salem, Dharmapuri and Namakkal, and was one of the earliest districts to come under British rule in India:⁴

Alexander Read, was appointed by Lord Cornwallis, as the first head of the district in 1791. Thomas Munro was appointed one of his assistants. Salem was completely surveyed in seven years time. Munro never forgot Salem and remembered it as a model unit of administration. Bretts served decades later, building on the foundation laid by Read and Munro.

Mason's book is replete with anecdotes on administration of revenue, justice, building roads, canals, bridges, railroads and nurturing institutions.
The rule of "Audi alterem partem" was taught this way:

To a Bhil tribesman who, after a long tale of woe, begged him for justice at once, here and now, on an oppressor who had not been heard in answer, Malcom asked:
'Why do you suppose God gave me two ears?'
That would be enough; it would carry instant conviction where half an hour's explanation would have produced only a sullen bewilderment. It was an answer which ought to have been taught to every young man entering the Company's service.⁵

Even today, the role of the Collector remains much the same. He takes charge of the district. He is duty bound to remove public nuisances and maintain public order.⁶ During the British rule, more than 3000 thugs were convicted between 1831 and 1837, after Lord William Bentinck appointed Sleeman to capture and bring the thugs to justice. Thugs those days killed for gain, and it was not unusual for them to have targets of killing one thousand pilgrims and travelers. Clearing India of thugs was no easy task but the evil was tamed.⁷

"Bretts Road" stands in glorious remembrance of the difficult services of not only Henry Augusts Bretts, but scores of others like him who diligently served India. The greatest criticism against the civil service of the British era was that they were not accountable to the people. Mahatma Gandhi started the non-cooperation movement in 1919, when Indians were cooperating with the administration in every way. After Independence, the anomaly stands corrected and the rulers are held accountable to the people through elected representatives. The Collector is a pillar of strength in our democratic set up. As a native of Salem, a wish: The road to virtuous service is a hard one and "Bretts Road" ought to remain on the map of India, as a guide to every sincere traveler.

---

¹ Philip Mason, The Men Who Ruled India, Rupa & Co, 1985, p. 346
² R. Ilangovan, We want Bretts Road, The Hindu, 28th November, 2009, http://www.hindu.com/2009/11/28/stories/2009112852490300.htm accessed on 29th November, 2009.
³ Philip Mason passed away in 1999. A clip from the "Daily Telegraph (London), Obituaries, Friday, January 29, 1999" is available at
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/INDIA/1999-01/0917632468, accessed on 29th November, 2009.
⁴ Mason, op. cit., p. 86
⁵ Ibid., p. 88
⁶ AIR 2009 SC 1868, Suhelkhan Khudyarkhan & another v. Sate of Maharashtra and others also available online at http://www.ebc-india.com/practicallawyer/index2.php?option=com_content&itemid=99999999&do_pdf=1&id=13137
⁷ Mason, op. cit., p. 115

A poem from Purananuru

யானை புக்க புலம்

காய்நெல் லறுத்துக் களவங் கொளினே
மாநிறை வில்லதும் பன்னாட் காகும்
நூறுசெறு வாயினுந் தமித்துப்புக் குணினே
வாய்புகு வதனினுங் கால்பெரிது கெடுக்கும்
அறிவுடை வேந்த னெறியறிந்து கொளினே
கோடி யாத்து நாடுபெரிது நந்தும்
மெல்லியன் கிழவ னாகி வைகலும்
வரிசை யறியாக் கல்லென் கற்றமொடு
பரிவுதப வெடுக்கும் பிண்ட நச்சின்
யானை புக்க புலம்போலத்
தானு முண்ணா னுலமுங் கெடுமே.

- பிசிராந்தையார்

The field entered by an elephant

"If an elephant take mouthfuls of ripe grain cut for it,
The twentieth part of an acre will yield it food for many days;
But if it enter a hundred fertile fields, with no keeper,
Its foot will trample down much more than its mouth receives.
So if a wise king, who knows the path of right take just his due,
His land will prosper, yielding myriadfold,
But, if the king, not softened by his knowledge, take just what he desires,
Nor heed prescriptions rule, feasting with song and dance,
Amid his court and kindered, and show no love to his subjects;
Like the field that elephant entered,
His kingdom will perish, and he himself will lose his all".

-Translation by Rev. Dr. G.U. Pope

The above verse is an obituary by a friend in the memory of his master, the King. G.U. Pope comments, they were not exactly "words of love." The players there are Ko-Perum-Cholan, Pottiyar and Piciranthaiyar - the noble King and his two intimate friends, who were also poets. All the three, after death were commemorated by stones placed side by side over their urns.

Apart from the discourse on why and how anyone should use valuable resources without waste, the composition also elegantly applies the Tamil fraction 1/20 'ma' [மா] in the 2nd line.

Ranjith and friends ...

Ranjith and friends take this road in Chennai, to school. We don't need computers to see what needs to be done to improve things here, but they could help us utilize resources in a better way:

The middle path

Thiruvalluvar, writing on "prohibited conduct" (கூடா ஒழுக்கம்), said:

280. மழித்தலும் நீட்டலும் வேண்டா உலகம்
பழித்தது ஒழித்து விடின்.

Rev. Dr. G.U. Pope translated that as:

What's the worth of shaven head or tresses long, If you shun what all the world condemns as wrong?

Mr. F.W. Ellis:

There is no need of a shaven crown, nor of tangled hair, if a man abstain from those deeds which the wise have condemned.

The English translations limit the verse to just the head and crown - missing the beard and the more general meaning of "shaving". Thiruvalluvar seems to prescribe the middle path with regard to hair - trimmed to taste according to the fashion of the day!

Buddhist monks and other sects have elaborate tonsuring rules and procedures. On the other extreme, Saivaite saints and others sport long tresses and beards. Both symbolise and make their school of thought apparent to the world, through hair growth. Valluvar strongly censures both practices, and declares that both extremes are unwanted when what the world condemns is given up, abandoned and/or destroyed.

Beyond just hair on the head, the verse prescribes the middle path to wealth earned through moral rectitude.

The University of Madras dictionary at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/tamil-lex/ gives the following meaning to "மழித்தல்":

1. மொட்டையடி-த்தல் moṭṭai-y-aṭi- : (page 3374)

மொட்டையடி-த்தல் moṭṭai-y-aṭi-

, v. tr. < id. +. 1. To shave the head entirely; தலை முழுதும் மழித்தல். 2. To strip completely, as a man of his wealth, as a tree of its fruits; முழு துங் கொள்ளைகொள்ளுதல். மரத்தை மொட்டை யடித்துவிட்டார்கள்.

The meaning of "நீட்டல்":

1. நீட்டல் nīṭṭal : (page 2295)

1. Stretching, lengthening; நீட்டுகை. 2. Procrastination; தாமதம். நிலைமை யறிய நீட்ட மின்றி (பெருங். மகத. 23, 51).

நீட்டல் nīṭṭal, n. < id. 1. Lengthening, extending, stretching; நீளச்செய்கை. 2. (Gram.) Poetic licence which consists in the lengthening of a short vowel into a long one; குற்றுயிரை

2. நீட்டல்மானம் nīṭṭal-māṉam : (page 2295)

280). 5. Liberality; பெருங்கொடை. (பிங்.)

The verse prohibits stripping someone of all wealth. It also abjures needless generosity. Both are needless if one maintains rectitude earning wealth. Of course, the verse assumes the reader has freedom to ponder and take correct decisions.

The saint who spoke so clearly censuring extremes, is portrayed with high tresses and a long beard. That does no justice to Thiruvalluvar - he must have sported neatly trimmed hair according to the fashion of his day!

It won't be out of place here to mention that most programmers who have made a huge difference to computing follow the middle path. To read more on them, please visit:

http://www.codethinked.com/post/2007/12/06/The-Programmer-Dress-Code.aspx
http://www.codethinked.com/post/2007/12/The-Programmer-Dress-Code---Part-Deux.aspx
http://khason.net/blog/computer-languages-and-facial-hair-%e2%80%93-take-two/

Free access to law movement

One of the exciting world wide movements promoting free access to law is spearheaded from Australia. The Australasian Legal Information Institute hosts http://www.austlii.edu.au/ This website allows free access to most of the Australian legal resources, including legislation and decisions of the High Court of Australia [the Highest court in Australia]. They have devised standard notation for citing case law that is uniformly followed throughout Australia, with most of the Courts sending in the judgments and transcripts of proceedings to austlii.edu.au in standard formats. Legislation is reported to the site by the attorneys who represent the state.

Austlii success also led initiatives in England creating www.bailii.org Worldlii site provides access to legal information in other jurisdictions. Legal information institutes of the world, meeting in Montreal, in October 2002 declared that:

* Public legal information from all countries and international institutions is part of the common heritage of humanity. Maximising access to this information promotes justice and the rule of law;
* Public legal information is digital common property and should be accessible to all on a non-profit basis and free of charge;
* Independent non-profit organisations have the right to publish public legal information and the government bodies that create or control that information should provide access to it so that it can be published.

Involvement of professors of law, attorneys, judges and a host of sponsors from the business and legal community make the initiative possible. Some accounts giving details of the work done by various volunteers and enthusiasts are available. A few snips from interesting speeches and material published online:

The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales (Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers) in his Valedictory Address for Lord Justice Brooke [2006] EWCA Civ B1 (27 July 2006) http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2006/B1.html said:

On the Bench Henry worked tirelessly with the Lord Chancellor's Department (latterly the Department of Constitutional Affairs) on schemes for the introduction of IT into the court system -- schemes that alas all too often have fallen at the fence of implementation through lack of funds. Legal Technology News accurately stated that Lord Justice Brooke was "one of the most computer literate judges on the bench of any court on either side of the Atlantic today" with the advantage of being a realist "rather than a techno-enthusiast forever jumping on to every new gizmo band wagon that rolls along".

I would need the assistance of a computer to keep track of the various IT committees on which Henry Brooke has served during the nineteen years that he has been striving to bring the court's IT into first the 20th and latterly the 21st century -- although it might be more truthful to say that the efforts are still to bring the standards up to those of the last century. He was the first judge to be a full member of a Court Service Board, and, in 2001, because of his unparalleled experience, he was appointed by Lord Woolf as Judge in charge of Modernisation (JIM for short). He has described his experience in this area as "snakes and ladders". The promise of £1.1 billion for IT for criminal courts -- up a ladder. The promise of £260 million for IT in the civil courts -- a further ladder. Superb team work between civil servants and judges -- and in this context Mr Justice Cresswell deserves special mention -- in preparing the programmes for modernisation -- up a long ladder -- and then, wham, down a huge snake, the withdrawal of the majority of the funding.

Despite this, there have been some advances -- the computerised claims production centre at Northampton, Money Claims Online, Possession Claims Online, the LINK system, XHIBIT (although not all agree that this deserved the priority it received), and the provision of lap-tops and IT facilities for judges. So the industry of Henry and those who have worked with him at the IT coalface has borne some fruit.

Allied to his enthusiasm for IT has been his determination that the public should have free access to judgments as soon as they have been approved by the court. In 1999 he chaired a meeting in London which led to the formation of the multi-disciplinary "Free the Law" movement and to his taking the Chair of BAILII (the British and Irish Legal Information Institute) which has achieved so much in this area.

These activities would be more than enough to provide a full workload for most people, but Henry has done them in his spare time. His mainstream activities included chairing the Law Commission in the three years 1993, 1994 and 1995. This important post requires the highest intellectual ability and knowledge of the law, coupled with leadership and administrative skills. You can see why Mr Justice Brooke was selected for the job. It has also traditionally earned the holder swift promotion to the Court of Appeal on relinquishing the chair. Thus, in 1996, though not quite as swiftly as he deserved, Henry was promoted to the Court of Appeal.

The contribution that he has made to jurisprudence in that court, particularly since he has been presiding, has been immense, reflecting his learning in the law and powers of analysis...

The legal fraternity even today takes pride in the trappings of office: majestic buildings, robes, flowery language, etc. It is hilarious to read this part of the above speech!

It takes a little time to get to know Henry Brooke. His clerk, Elizabeth, sent me a note which says: "He wears his robes like a catwalk model -- off the shoulder". He has a slightly craggy exterior and an unruly and unruled head of hair (which is one of the more cogent arguments for wigs in the Court of Appeal), and which can even lead to an impression of slight disorganisation.

If so, the impression is totally misleading. No one, who does not have a rigid self-discipline, could achieve even half of the contribution that Henry Brooke makes, and from his earliest days in the law has made, to so many different aspects of the administration of justice in this country. When you come to know him, you also become aware of his sense of values, his humanity and his care for his fellow men and women.

One may only humbly agree with the Chief Justice that the contributions by Sir Henry Brooke have added greater glory to the institution more than any of the other trappings. The effort to use technology in meaningful ways is never easy, as Mr Stephen Hockman, QC, observed in the farewell to Lord Justice Brooke:

At the same time, as I suspect most people will be aware, Henry Brooke was making increasing use of technology in the cases which he tried. His practice was to engage in proactive case-management through the use of e-mail. Many a Member of the Bar, and perhaps even of the Judiciary, who has received an e-mail from Henry timed at some unearthly hour, perhaps even well after midnight, with the self-effacing but inaccurate explanation later proffered that it was probably due to an error in the time clock on the computer. Such stories, I venture to say, illustrate both his dedication and his essential modesty.

Laurie J West-Knights QC, co-founded www.bailii.org along with Lord Saville and Sir Henry Brooke. It was originally maintained by LJW-K QC, personally, at http://www.lawonline.cc/ The story of the initiative used to be available there, but not any longer. One gets to read about LJW-K, QC, at http://www.hailshamchambers.com/barristers/laurie-west-knights-qc.asp The point to be noted is that it takes only a few spirited individuals to bring about spectacular changes.

In India, NIC has taken several initiatives, and a wealth of information relating to legislation and case-law are freely available. But, there are no standard notations that enable citing case-law published at the NIC servers before courts. Again, many proprietary software tools are used in India, in sharp contrast to austlii that uses its own in-house software to index information. (The technical details about tools used by austlii are available here)

Porting law to computers as code executable by machines would be the next logical step. India has a rich tradition in not only computing and mathematics, but satya and dharma (truth and rule of law) as well. We should take a lot more initiative to make the porting possible within a decade from now.

References:
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WorldLII
[2] Graham Greenleaf (University of New South Wales - Faculty of Law), Philip Chung (University of Technology, Sydney - Faculty of Law) and Andrew Mowbray (University of Technology, Sydney - Faculty of Law), Emerging Global Networks for Free Access to Law: World LII's Strategies, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=975614
(2007)

'Rule of Law' text transcript

A lecture titled "The Rule of Law" was given by The Rt. Hon Lord Bingham of Cornhill KG, House of Lords. A recording and transcript of the talk is available here.

Lord Bingham speaks of seven sub-rules of Rule of Law:

First, the law must be accessible and so far as possible intelligible, clear and predictable.
Second, questions of legal right and liability should ordinarily be resolved by application of the law and not the exercise of discretion.
Third, laws of the land should apply equally to all, save to the extent that objective differences justify differentiation.
Fourth, law must afford adequate protection of fundamental human rights.
Fifth, means must be provided for resolving, without prohibitive cost or inordinate delay, bona fide civil disputes which the parties themselves are unable to resolve.
Sixth, ministers and public officers at all levels must exercise the powers conferred on them reasonably, in good faith, for the purpose for which the powers were conferred and without exceeding the limits of such powers.
Seventh, adjudicative procedures provided by the state should be fair.