The visionary forces of law[1] oppose matter-of-fact forces. The law is not insulated from the rest of the world. It maintains multiple relationships with politics, morale, history…
At the European, and even more so at the international level, the law no longer operates under its various models and hierarchies; it compels us to produce an arranged pluralism – a harmonization process based on a set of universal principles. This is a precondition for countering the threat of orderly disorder, solely guided by market rules, and for protecting ourselves from a judicial imperialism at the service of American hegemony.
Today, we are witnesses to a new legal revolution, stemming from the creation of the international forum of judges[2]. A major transformation of judicial reason is now taking place. This is not the work of just a lone unlikely legislator, but rather the result of the day-to-day work of judges exchanging arguments, decisions and ideas. The actions of national and international courts are filling the gaps of supranational regulations. Judges create the common normative tissue which substitutes for the absence of a global and general law[3].
The legal system is breaking free from its ivory tower; it is opening its windows to the world. It is learning how to think globally in order to act locally. MEDEL (Magistrats européens pour la démocratie et les libertés) has had it own modest share in the development of this new spirit. The association has helped unite Europe’s Visionary Forces of Justice – the judges and prosecutors who perceive law as a commitment and an instrument for change.
Its ambition is in keeping with a civil society model, which has specifically referring to the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasburg, since the Handyside and Sunday Times judgments. Namely, that there cannot be a democratic society without pluralism, tolerance and free spirit being effectively entrenched into its constitution, which must be subject to the principle of preeminence of law, an efficient control of executive power by an independent judicial authority, without prejudice to parliamentary control, and which ensures the respect of human personality.
The foundation of Medel reflects an engagement, an ambition and an ideal. It also represents a social conscience: Between rich and poor, strong and weak, it is freedom that oppresses, and the law that liberates. Lacordaire’s phrase remains very much topical in the age of economic liberalism.
And more in the brochure
[1] Mireille Delmas Marty, Les forces imaginantes du droit, Le relatif et l’universel, ed. du Seuil
[2] Julie Allard, Antoine Garapon, les juges dans la mondialisation, ed. du Seuil
[3] Sabino cassese, De l’espace juridique global a l’ordre juridique global, conference a la Cour de cassation, Paris 2007.