publications_unodc_commentary-e

. . . deal impartially with the suits which are submitted to you. Ofcomplaints brought by the people there are a thousand in one day. If inone day there are so many, how many will there be in a series of years?If the man who is to decide suits at law makes gain his ordinary motive,and hears causes with a view to receiving bribes, then will the suits of therich man be like a stone flung into water, while the plaints of the poorwill resemble water cast upon a stone. Under these circumstances thepoor man will not know whither to betake himself. Here too there is adeficiency in the duty of the Minister. 67Roman LawThe Twelve Tables (450 B.C.) contains the following injunction: 68The setting of the sun shall be the extreme limit of time within which ajudge must render his decision.Chinese LawHsun Tzu, an eminent Chinese elder and respected magistrate (circa 312 B.C.) wrotethus: 69 Fair mindedness is the balance in which to weigh proposals; uprightharmoniousness is the line by which to measure them. Where laws exist,to carry them out; where they do not exist, to act in the spirit ofprecedent and analogy – that is the best way to hear proposals. To showfavouritism and partisan feeling and be without any constant principles –this is the worst you can do. It is possible to have good laws and stillhave disorder in the state.In contrast, Han Fai Tzu, a prince of the royal family (circa 280 B.C.), propounded amore legalist approach: 70Though a skilled carpenter is capable of judging a straight line with hiseye alone, he will always take his measurements with a rule; though aman of superior wisdom is capable of handing affairs by native wit67 W.G. Aston (trans.), Nihongi, Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697(Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1896), cited in Weeramantry, An Invitation to the Law,pp. 249-250.68 The Civil Law, S.P. Scott (trans.) (Cincinnati, Central Trust Co., 1932), Vol. 1, pp. 57-59,cited in Weeramantry, An Invitation to the Law, pp. 265-266.69 Basic Writings of Mo Tzu, Hsun Tzu and Han Fei Tzu, Burton Watson (trans.) (ColumbiaUniversity Press, 1967), p. 35, cited in Weeramantry, An Invitation to the Law, p. 253.70 Ibid., pp. 253-254.151