Quote of the week
[T]he moral point of the matter is never reached by calling what happened by the name of ‘genocide’ or by counting the many millions of victims: extermination of whole peoples had happened before in antiquity, as well as in modern colonization. It is reached only when we realize this happened within the frame of a legal order and that the cornerstone of this ‘new law’ consisted of the command ‘Thou shall kill,’ not thy enemy but innocent people who were not even potentially dangerous, and not for any reason of necessity but, on the contrary, even against all military and other utilitarian calculations. … And these deeds were not committed by outlaws, monsters, or raving sadists, but by the most respected members of respectable society.
Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on The Banality of Evil
If those practitioners who contravene the rules and standards of the profession are not dealt with promptly and effectively by those who have the statutory power and duty to regulate the profession, then instead of ensuring accountability and upholding the integrity and status of the profession a culture of impunity is fostered and the profession is lowered in the eyes of the public, and the values and principles which are essential to its survival are debased. We remind the [Legal Practice] Council that in order to achieve its statutory objectives,35 which include the regulation of the profession and the enhancement and maintenance of its integrity and status, and the protection of the public, it is statutorily enjoined to do all things necessary for the proper and effective performance of its functions and the exercise of its powers.
