Law is a normative value to help society live in collectivity and harmony. For law to be a supreme regulator of all, it must become integral in theory and practice. An integral dimension of law helps State, society and legal systems to balance and harmonize competing claims arising out of complexity and heterogeneity of life and changing needs. Professor Dr. K. Parameswaran outlines his integral theory of law in this series of articles by showing how law must integrate knowledge from other disciplines; bring them under what law wants from them. “…Thus, when law becomes integral, it opens practical and yet unfailing solutions to assist peace, progress, prosperity and protection of all, for our current times and future age…” – author claims. Part II, discloses in practical terms the ‘integral dimension of law’ that exists among Law, Spirituality and Justice.
Studies on law and religion largely comprise of their interrelationships with social, cultural and political issues before State,legal systems and society. Constitutional lawbecomes a foundation. They dealwith expression and performance of rights and restrictions, freedoms andliberties between State and society, individual and collective choices and the sense of personal and public spaces in religious matters. Laws on freedom of religion and belief-systems, secular character of State and society, expenditure under public exchequer and its legal recognition, minority and majoritarian policies, legal theories, political ideas, history, philosophy, theology, morality, ethics, values and public policy etc.,hover this socio-cultural legal map navigating often a conflicting course between law and religion in every society. Challenges of customs and socio-cultural transformations necessitated by globalizing world createadditional responsibility on State and legal institutions, their questions on limits of democracy and regulation of order by which studies on law and religion acquire a crucial place.
We have seen in previous columns of Law and Religion various methods of bringing out integral legal perspectives where they leadto create scope for relationship between spiritual dimensions and legal knowledge. It will be worth attempting from creative legal thinking to study this interrelationshipbetween spirituality and justice of which religion and society are their external components and outcomes. How do we reap benefits from spirituality and its various trans-personal dimensions and psychological states of awareness, conceptual understanding and their values andfinally apply them in practical terms tolegal institutions, reasoning and logic to impact justice in social collectivity? Current methods in the processes of law, its institutions and structures are largely outside-in in method where by legal necessities and expectations come piloting from social forces and external sources by which law is set in movement both in theory as well as in action. We also have seen that this outside-in method is a trial and error experimentation and technique,and hence it is either gradual or even slow. This dawdling growth sometimes potentially brings injustice to rights and liberties in its growing period as the state of nature is yet to arrive at equilibrium and equality.Also, laws that are put in place become punitive in nature where conflicts come between those who participated and evolved with law-making processes and follow them and, those who could not. A time lag between different or unequal social groups and evolving forces also createsadditional challenges to legal processes, institutions and systems. In the end, State and society, and models of topdown and bottom-up approaches to law and social transformation become a case of serious study under legal discipline and invites other disciplines of knowledge as well to contribute their knowledge to legal knowledge. At this juncture it becomes inevitable to look up to a spiritual discipline whose knowledge and action and, values and benefits are universal, collective and harmonious. This integral idea and action makes spirituality in law and justice crucial considering the surmounting problems and the need to resolve them with justice.
Conception of order (natural law), its idea and value is characteristic of any spiritual experience across all religions in their inner dimensions. Order and harmony–not chaos and confusion, are the enduring guides of satisfaction for any movement and development in external and social life. This is the result of order that exists inherently somewhere allowing growth and evolution through phases of development no matter how disruptive they are in transitory stages in the state of nature outwardly. It is a human experience that order supports a flux of movement of things from behind. All human actions of clear deeds and their goals of achievement hold this deeper experience valid and true. Upon completion of actions, a positive result comes with release of knowledge and intended actual benefit helping the next stage of development. Legal, social and political history understands this process and movement. What was valid or socially normative and legal at one point of time, changes over a period of time and becomes non-appealing and un-attractive to a changed course of human awarenessmaking it as a new social narrative and normative that is legal and justiciable (Eg: practice of Sati).Social energies, time and evolution only processthis inherent order at an external level. Command of sovereign (positive law) though structured and enthroned as seat of power and authority and vested in one or group of persons (Eg: parliament, democracy and election) is actually a power of individual self-reflective awareness of thought-need-action which legal reasoning and logic achieves by testing laboriously every case and cause of action as a new ground of socio-legal situation and circumstance before a law and its court. When this awareness happens in every individual it becomes a society, community and nation of awareness.Through this society becomes lawful as well as lawconscious. Consensus of social collectivity(real law) on a broader picture is a process of harmony, togetherness, mutuality and goodwill which support order and rule of law. In a way, this is what international law, its community system and legal order, the UNO and treaties of State-convenience stand for and struggle to accomplish. These three elements – conception of order, command of sovereign and consensus of social collectivity from legal theories and schools are indeed inner and spiritual dimensions whose reflections of individual as well as social-collective Selfthat ought to be enhanced by State, society, law and legal system by whatever methods. If we first agree to this concept and action, methods of implementation become easy and effective. Legal education is one of the most powerful methods to start this process (interrelationship between spirituality and justice) from below as law graduates and legal professionals have duty, opportunity and capacity for implementation. State and the law of the Constitution must seriously think of this interrelationship between spirituality and justice as a method of prevention better than punition.
This inside-out method, its knowledge and practice must be brought in mainstream education social and political awareness and dialogue. At the moment this inner dimension of knowledge is handled by systems of religious order and their cultural practices. State and the law of Constitution must consider this as a part of justiceadministration, effective legal-policy making and measures of welfare and wellbeing to society. It is a fact that when one is peaceful spiritually and internally within, one has more capacities to be socially, externally and finally legally do things according to order as expected by law. When one has a harmony among mind-emotion-body complex, every action becomes an action of freedom and liberty without transgressing rights and freedoms of other individuals. When one has compassion and affection for others, one understands the sense of equality and balance between oneself and the other. When one has the spirit of goodwill and sense of unity, the fraternity automatically follows. When one follows a spirit of perfection in every action one gets to know and feel the sense of justice to things.
World and the State systems of law and society with advancements in science and technology have understood now the role of transitional justice methods, scientific evidence of psychological wellbeing, relationship between stress and amicable conduct, purpose and advantage of transdisciplinary research and knowledge etc. We must emerge into the next stage of thought-action-utility for a larger social and planetary self and spirit. Problems of the world, like climate change, sustainable development, abuse of human dignity and corrupt practices out of greed have only one point of direction to all of us. We only need to believeby dynamic and actual experience that spirituality as an experience of subjective evidence resulting in objective evidence of realistic social utility and outcome. The integral dimension of law, spirituality and justice is not only a futurist step, but an inevitable step towards universal rule of law and universal nature of order. Follow the next two-part series on ‘Integral Dimension of Law: Law and Psychology’.
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