The Law on My Side
You may think it strange, but I am quite enamored with the works of Charles Dickens. I think the turning point was when I read A Tale of Two Cities and fell in love with the story. Since then, I have endeavored to read all of his works, but only 1 or 2 a year. Knowing that I will eventually run out of them has given me the incentive to slow the pace of reading. This year I am reading The Pickwick Papers, which must be one of the silliest works Dickens ever wrote. As always, Dickens finds ample room for satirizing all sorts of people from all walks of life, not the least of which are those of the legal profession.
I haven’t finished reading the book at the time of writing this entry, so I don’t know quite how it ends, but the hero of the piece, Mr. Pickwick, has been sued by a former landlady for breach of promise. She claims he had proposed to marry her and has engaged the law offices of Dodson & Fogg to prosecute Mr. Pickwick. Although Mr. Pickwick is clearly in the right and guiltless in the matter, it is also clear that the landlady has ‘the law on her side’. Though I used to take that particular expression to mean that justice would be done, after reading of the machinations of the fictional Dodson & Fogg (particularly when Pickwick threatens to physically attack them), I have begun to rethink it. Having the law on one’s side has nothing to do with justice and righteousness but everything to do with power and, perhaps more pertinently, knowledge/education. Dodson & Fogg know just how to manipulate the scenario and, indeed, the facts to guarantee a legal victory. Politically we can see the same effect at work in the language of Washington, as is aptly demonstrated in the piece from the Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124233351737120903.html#mod=djemEditorialPage
I’m reminded of the Pharisees of Jesus’ day. They, too, had the ‘law on their side’ and were very skilled in squeezing out every last ounce of the spirit of the law in favor of the letter, and hence justifying themselves in their own eyes. (I wonder how often I do the same thing with Biblical passages, reinterpreting them so that they do not upset my delicate sense of self-worth nor my comfortable lifestyle.) The message of the New Testament, however, is not one of having the law one my side, but having grace on my side, to the glory of God.
