Two British Lives

BEIRUT -- Two public figures in the United Kingdom made news last week for different reasons: former Prime Minister Tony Blair who published his memoirs and was quickly forced to cancel some public appearances because of the demonstrators who threw eggs at him; and, the late Tom Bingham, Lord Bingham of Cornhill, who passed away after being recognized as "the greatest judge of the modern era," in the words of his obituary in the Guardiannewspaper. These two very different men -- a politician and a jurist -- capture the best and worst of British culture and, indeed, of Western civilization very broadly defined. The jurist's quality life makes the world a better and safer place, and the politician's expedient life makes the world more treacherous and dangerous. 

Remembering why these men's public lives will be remembered by history in such different ways may also clarify why so many people around the world view the United Kingdom and other Western democracies with awe and envy -- but simultaneously see in these societies aspects of despicability and deviousness that go beyond the realm of the mischievous and enter the world of criminality. The difference is about the rights of men and women, and the guarantee and protection of these rights universally through the application of the rule of law. 

Through Lord Bingham's distinguished legal career he held the highest judicial posts in the land. He was the Master of the Rolls and Lord Chief Justice, and was noteworthy for his spirited and principled defense of human rights and the rule of law. He saw judges and the courts as the indispensable last line of defense for such rights, and judges as the key guardians of the process that has made democracies, and Great Britain in particular, such distinctive phenomena in human history. He challenged the government when he thought it exceeded its executive powers or endangered the rights of citizens, natives and foreigners alike, whom he felt shared universal values and rights. He pioneered the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights into English law, and spoke out clearly against the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq in 2003, which he said was "a serious violation of international law."

He did not hesitate to push back against the British government headed by Tony Blair when, following the lead of the Bush-Cheney-led American government, it used questionable means to wage war against terror, including indefinite detentions and using evidence obtained through torture. When the legislature's role waned and strong executives over-reacted to the mass anger of traumatized and terrorized citizens, he insisted that the judiciary was duty bound to uphold the rule of law. 

In a seminal decision in 2004 he wrote that, "The judges in this country are not elected and are not answerable to Parliament ... the function of independent judges charged to interpret and apply the law is universally recognized as a cardinal feature of the modern democratic state, a cornerstone of the rule of law itself."

That bastion of judicial independence, due process, fairness and common sense may be the single most important reason why countries like the United Kingdom and the United States have emerged as world powers in their days, and have influenced and inspired billions of people around the world, and continue to attract immigrants from less free lands. 

When Lord Bingham passed away this week I took a moment to go back and read through the debate in the House of Lords of November 3, 1997, when the human rights bill was being debated.

He said, among other things, that "In a democracy it is right that the majority should govern. But that is precisely why it is also right that the human rights of individuals and minorities should be protected by law. I am convinced that incorporation of the European convention into our domestic law will deliver a modern reconciliation of the inevitable tension between the democratic right of the majority to exercise political power and the democratic need of individuals and minorities to have their human rights secured."

He once reminded the House of Lords of Milton's statement: "Let not England forget her precedence of teaching nations how to live."

Well, yes, for many things, England shines. But not universally, because we also have the dark side of what England teaches the world, in the form of Tony Blair, whose lack of morality, honesty and credibility continue to besmirch the otherwise honorable face of England, and who has shown himself to be a human cluster bomb -- an instrument of war that keep fomenting destruction and suffering long after it has been deployed. Fortunately for England and for the world, Lord Bingham's life and thoughts, rather than Blair's spirit of dishonesty and destruction, are likely to have more resonance throughout the world in the decades and centuries ahead.


Rami G. Khouri is Editor-at-large of The Daily Star, and Director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, in Beirut, Lebanon.