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"Seeing the emergency, what is the reason to wait for a complete, general and conscientious reform of our body of law?" Justo Arosemena proclaimed that a century and a half ago in his word "El Estado Federal" (The Federal State). He was complaining about the subject of prisons: "The penal system is more to worsen than to correct the delinquent. Our presidios are foci of physical and moral infection, schools of perversion in which a man who was healthy before is corrupted and the hoodlum perfects his crimes, losing the last remains of his virtue...." I add these questions: Can judges be independent of the power that appoints them? How can corruption be surmounted? What is the role of judges in our present-day society?

In the face of new complaints that deepened the crisis that grips Panamanian justice, President Torrijos called for the formation of a State Commission for Justice, which in turn was questioned by diverse civic sectors, both for the composition of its members and for the half-year term for it to come forth with an agenda that leads to the transformation of the judiciary. I share these criticisms, as my opinion is that all of the magistrates must tender their resignations, which would allow those of the ones involved in corruption to be accepted, while those free of blame are left in their posts.

The choice of replacements must be made on the basis of a REAL consultation with the citizenry, which addresses the subject of the necessary legal and constitutional changes involved in adopting another way, a better one, to select those who must hold these delicate positions. The criteria must not only be formal but also substantive. We must follow the thread of the thinking that journalist Alejandra Matus brought us in her controversial work "The Black Book of Chilean Justice."

"The judge's function today traverses an inevitable spiral. His or her power turns precisely about the ability to interpret the constitution and the laws, with the end of 'doing' justice. It is this power, sternly wielded by magistrates in countries like Spain, Italy, England, the United States --- and various Latin American countries that have left the colonial heritage behind --- that has allowed many peoples to confront, without being dispersed, the cancer of corruption, even though this threatened to bring down the powers that be in both the legislative and executive branches at the same time. In a democratic system (one in which public decisions are made by the people, in which the determination of what's desirable for the people is legitimately made by the people themselves, and in which government officials are freely elected by the citizens at regular intervals), the judge is someone who knows and resolves social conflicts."

The late minister José Canova said in his memoirs that "to administer justice, the judges are called upon to uphold the rule of law, putting an exact limit on the exercise of power by the authorities. It's worth saying that the imposition of the so-called "Principle of Legality" can't be determined in any other way than by popular sovereignty."

We have magistrates who think that to do their job they must isolate themselves from the world. The discount the opinions of the lay people around them and feel secure in their scrupulous knowledge of judicial formality. They consider themselves pure and independent. However, according to the minister of the Santiago Court of Appeals, Carlos Cerda, in his work "Iuris Dictio," there's nothing worse than a judge who believes that he or she is above the citizens. "Don't mix, nor don't dirty yourself with, "those people... the lumpen...." To do justice a magistrate need not become a recluse in an ivory tower. This is exactly, Cerda says, one of the vices of judges that gets complained about: "The judge is a calibrator of the judicial sense of his or her time.... Chilean justice must submit itself without restrictions to the criticism of public opinion. And its judges must be disposed to submit their performance for validation by the community."

In 1966, magistrate Rubén Galecio wrote about the "judge in crisis," saying that the magistrate must be thoroughly imbued with the social sense of his or her epoch, but alert to maintain his or her independence. Neither uncontaminated in an ivory tower, nor a grasper in the competition for social prestige. A certain bearing and culture, and true character, are necessary in modern magistrates who must face the judgments of society and of themselves.

"If the concept of the judge is an idea-symbol, it's also an idea-power, it's an engine of social peace in the struggle against arbitrariness, crime and abuse. If the present society takes advantage of this power, employing it with intelligence and good sense, in can contribute abundantly to the most indispensable thing for a democracy: the faith of the people in the law."

This is the time to begin the recovery of lost faith.

Also in this section:
Delarge, Why not build a road through the Darien?
Hassan, Double standards about nepotism?
Jackson, Wolfowitz, a tougher guy in a weaker World Bank
Weisbrot, The World Bank's problems go well beyond Wolfowitz
Kozloff, Venezuela and the oil weapon
Revenga, The world's growing water crisis
Noriega, Customs modernization
Avnery, Splitting Sharon from the settlers
Leis, Public faith in the law is at stake
Bernal, Judicial and legislative scandal