Lecture series: Chronicles of kings and courts

Spiraling through history and philosophy of 19th century Europe.

ISLAMABAD:

The fifth lecture on Modern History and Philosophy by Ashfaq Saleem Mirza at the Friedrich Elbert Stiftung House on Thursday covered ‘Constitution and Emergence of Law’.

Mirza focused on the work of the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian who developed the Roman Law. In 529 AD, he brought scattered information on law to a unified whole and codified it, naming it ‘Corpus Juris Civils’ (Body of Civil Law). It comprised three parts; Codex that recorded enactments of kings, Digest that covered all decisions made by jurists and Institute that was a concise copy for students.

The link between law, education and religion was also noted by Mirza as he spoke of pioneering law universities; Paris University, Cambridge University, Oxford University and Bologna University. All these universities were monasteries till the 12th century at first but were later transformed to secular institutes, of which, Bologna was the first (11th century).

Mirza also highlighted the ‘Magna Carta’ (Great Charter) that arose in King John’s reign when fuedals protested over being arrested on no grounds. Much like the ‘Habeas Corpus’, it safeguarded the privilege of feudal against kingships. Mirza clarified ‘Magna Carta’ is sometimes misunderstood as an all-encompassing law, perhaps due to its name, but it is in fact a law that arose out of feudal issues.

Hans Fry, a historian added to information on ‘Magna Carta’ saying, “there was a constant struggle between kings and nobility as Britain was overwhelmingly poor. So the kings were quite poor themselves and had to make a parliament of nobles to suffice financially”. Even King John was mockingly referred to as ‘John-lack-land’.

During the lecture Mirza also cautioned to not become too anxious on the current state of Pakistan as democracy takes time to mature.

He cited examples of the 1824 Reform Act (British) stating that before this act, the vast contribution of capitalism and industrialisation were not taken into consideration in the otherwise ‘Fuedal constitution’. In addition, not until about 19th century the women in Italy had the right to vote. Mirza attributed this slow development to a missing bridge between form (denoting law) and matter (application) in societies, as was discussed in Aristotle’s teachings and Mirza Ghalib’s poetry.

For instance, Pakistan is considered a democracy, however, the true implication of what a democracy is will take some time to realise.

When asked why Justinian never got recognition for his contribution, Mirza replied, “History is told by those who record it. Also, the manner in which its documented sometimes results in altered or lost information.”

The next lecture will be held on Febuary 2.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 21^st, 2012.