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A TEMPLE WITHOUT GOD (notes on the Bulgarian democracy)

ranslation from Bulgarian.
from www.braykov.com, published in the Bulgarian “Capital Press on 08.12.2014
(NB: Pls note that in Bulgarian language the English words for justice/fairness have just one equivalent for both: “справедливост“.

1. “When a man means to give his attention to law (jus)q he ought first to know whence the term jus is derived. Now jus is so called from justitia; in fact, according to the nice definition of Celsus, jus is the art of what is good and fair. 1. Of this art we may deservedly be called the priests; we cherish justice and profess the knowledge of what is good and fair, we separate what is fair from what is unfair, we discriminate between what is allowed and what is forbidden, we desire to make men good, not only by putting them in fear of penalties, but also by appealing to them through rewards, proceeding, if I am not mistaken, on a real and not on a pretended philosophy”.

With these few lines by Ulpian start Justinian’s Digest of 533 AD – the collection of the whole ancient Roman law. For the jurisprudence they are what for the Bible is its first verse: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”. These lines tell us that the divine spark of law is justice- that feeling for harmony with the balance in Universe.

And this is what Moses prescribes to Israeli judges /Deuteronomy 1:16-17/:

16. And I charged your judges at that time:
Hear the disputes between your brothers and judge fairly,
Whether the case is between brother Israelites
Or between one of them and an alien.

17. Do not show partiality in judging;
Hear both small and great alike.
Do not be afraid of any man,
For judgment belongs to God.

Prophet Isaiah adds /10:1/:

Woe to those who make unjust laws
And to those who issue oppressive decrees.

The same in other words comes from Christ in the New Testament /John 5:30/:

I judge only as I hear and my judgment is just,
For I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.

2. I recall with a bitter irony those communist party atheists who claimed Christ was unjust and even cruel to the poor referring to his words:

For everyone who has will be given more…and
Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.
/Mathew 25:29, Mark 4:25, Luke 8:18/

They did not want to understand this verse by the other one:

The man with two tunics should share with him who has none,
And the one who has food should do the same. /Luke 3:11/.

These miserables could not see the shining evangelical truth that in their favorite “exposing” quote Christ speaks not of money but of Faith: He who has Faith in his heart will be given more Faith and he who does not have- will lose even the small Faith he has. That is why our Orthodox cross starts from the forehead (the logos, the mind) but ends up and stays with the heart. That is why St. Paul in his Message to the Romans /12:3/ expressly speaks of: “…the measure of Faith God has given you”.

3. Conscience is the other face of justice. Conscience is that merciless inner voice which recognizes the evil in its subordinate soul- as an acting Last Judgment. “…Your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil, speaks the serpent to Eva. Conscience is the living God in each of us. The fact that conscience is the same in all men and women proves that God is one. Without conscience there is no justice because conscience is the compass of justice. Only through my conscience I can judge whether a man is just and fair. Justice brings peace to conscience. That is why the biblical greeting “Peace be with you!” is a message of truth, justice and faith and not simply of non-violence. Without these three goods the absence of violence does not mean peace.

There is no peace in a country of a seven million population where about one million various court cases are pending. No matter that the weapons are silent. There is no way for one million bitter private wars, concerning at least two million people, to result into a common public peace- especially if these private wars do not end up fairly. That country does not need an international war. In such a judicial butchery the soul starts casting verbal bullets. Mathew the Evangelist has said it uniquely /24:12/: “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold”.

St. Augustine asks: “What is a kingdom without justice if not a big gang of robbers? Aren’t robbery gangs small kingdoms”? In Bulgaria prof. Jivko Stalev said it even clearer: “A state of law without justice is a kind of organized crime”.

Justice/fairness is the light in the temple of law, it is the God of that temple. Each successful justice is a burning candle. The contrary means darkness. In Bulgarian language the word “priest” comes from “candle” and “saint”- from “light”. If there is no justice in the law how would you require it from the judge? When a judge applies an unjust law he turns himself into an ordinary paid executioner no matter whether he punishes the innocent or sets free the guilty or simply serves the monopolies. The judicial toga which is used as a cover of evil shall burn the soul of its tailor and of the one who wears it on.

The basic concept of law is freedom, the possibility to choose something according to your own will. A divine revelation is the self-governing freedom which in fact is the state of law.

4. Where is justice in the temple of Bulgarian law?

4.1. In the Bulgarian Constitution the word “justice” appears only in its preamble:

“…as we declare our loyalty to the universal human values: freedom, peace, humanism, equality, justice and tolerance.”

But the preamble is not a proper part of the Constitution’s legal text, the preamble actually precedes its title and refers to inspiration and reasons but the preamble itself is neither a principle nor a binding rule.

The second reference to justice is in art. 24 s. 2 where one of the basic objectives of the Bulgarian foreign policy is “the contribution to establishing a just international order”. This is simply a desired objective with no legal nature and only on the international field where almost nothing depends on us. Nobody prescribes a contribution for a just internal order.

In all the remaining text of the Constitution – principles, specific rules- there is absolutely no mention of justice as a priority value. For example, there is no commitment to just laws.

4.2. In the Civil Procedure Code, the basic law of popular civil justice, there is no mention of the word justice/fairness or any of its derivatives.

4.3. In the Administrative Procedure Code:

Art.6 s.1 declares that the administrative bodies should exercise their powers in a just way.

and art. 9 s. 4 adds that the administrative body and the court should provide a procedural assistance to the parties for the lawful and just resolution of the problem that is the subject of the procedure incl. by a settlement.

But there is not even a hint that the court is obliged to decide the disputes in a just way.

4.4. In the Criminal Procedure Code only one of the cassation grounds (art. 352 s.1 p. 3) provides for a repeal of the sentence and/or the decision “when the imposed punishment is evidently unjust”. But if injustice is not evident there shall be no repeal.

Yet not only the punishment can be unjust but the whole specific criminal procedure or its respective parts.

Justice is not among the declared principles of the Bulgarian criminal procedure.

4.5. In the Tax Procedure Code there is no mention anywhere and in any aspect of the word “justice” or of its derivatives.

4.6. In the Criminal Code there is no mention anywhere and in any aspect of the word “justice” or of its derivatives.

4.7. In the Labor Code art. 1 s.3 declares as its objective “…just and fair…conditions for labor” and art.128a s.2 requires “a just reference and recommendation” for the employee. In all other specific and substantial rules of the code there is no mention of the word “justice’.

4.8. In the Elections Code art. 189 s. 3 recommends to the media a fair reporting of the pre-election events of the candidates. And nothing else is to be fair!

4.9. In the Family Code there is no mention anywhere and in any aspect of the word “justice” or of its derivatives.

4.10. In the Law for Normative Acts there is no mention anywhere and in any aspect of the word “justice” or of its derivatives. There is no requirement for the normative acts to be just/fair.

4.11. In the Law on Obligations and Contracts only art. 52 provides that “A compensation for non-material damages shall be determined by the court by the standards of fairness”. There is no mention of this word in any other provision.

4.12. In the Trade Act the word justice is mentioned marginally only in four peripheral provisions (out of nearly 800) but not in the fundamental principle texts. Only two of them are real legal rules but with very specific hypotheses:
– art. 37 provides for a fair/just remuneration of the trade agent but only if its usual size cannot be established.
– art. 261b requires a fair/just price for the acquired shares after a company transformation.
– art. 607 declares the fair/just satisfaction of the creditors as the objective of the bankruptcy procedure.
– art. 631 simply duplicates art. 52 of the Law on Obligations and Contracts (above 4.11).

5. The obvious absence of “justice” in these 12 basic Bulgarian laws cannot be an accidental coincidence. Someone’s mysterious hand has systematically and consistently “purged” Bulgarian law of this divine spark with which Ulpian starts the Digest. The most likely problem of that purging hand is precisely the link of justice with conscience as its source. It is because every ordinary man through his conscience can assess whether a law or a judicial act are just and to build up hard evaluation criteria. This is extremely unpleasant and absolutely unacceptable to those who want to rule by incomprehensible laws and mystic justice whose “supreme reason” is declared to be by nature inaccessible to the common mortals. Or in simple words, the effort is law and court deeds to be taken out from the critical radar of values of the ordinary man so that they are not looked into through the only universal and humanly comprehensible window- the fairness. The absence of an express reference to justice in the implemented law shortens the legal rein and increases the cover on the judge’s mind switching off his conscience as a possible corrective of the unjust law provision. This is in spite his oath commitment to judge fairly-under art.155 of the Judiciary law. Can a judge adjudicate in line with his oath but against the law?

As a contrast comparison I would refer to provision 1.1. (1) of the UK Civil Procedure Rules (1998):

The overriding objective.

1.1. (1) These Rules are a new procedural code with the overriding objective of enabling the court to deal with the cases justly.

1.2. The court must seek to give effect to the overriding objective when it

(a) exercises any power given to it by the Rules; or
(b) Interprets any rule.

And one more reference- the European Convention on Human Rights, ratified by Bulgaria in 1992:

ARTICLE 6 (1)
Right to a fair trial
In the determination of his civil rights and obligations or of any criminal charge against him, everyone is entitled to a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time by an independent and impartial tribunal established by law.
(This text has been duplicated by a concise sentence in art.7 s.1 of the Bg Judiciary law).

Only these two quotes are enough to prove that justice is an absolute priority among the values of law which requires its express presence in the principle provisions of the basic laws. Justice is not implied- in order to exist justice must be stated expressly, clearly and loudly- like the truth itself.

The question of justice in law is a question of its ideal and of its objective because “The objective is the creator of law”- according to Jhering. In his last months prof. Jivko Stalev claimed: “Our law is sick because it has no objective”. The ideal for justice is the deity in the temple of court for without justice that temple remains without a God and our law- a godless law. The interests of the treasury cannot be that supreme ideal but only a primitive idol. With such an idol we shall stay eternal nomads to civilization.

The implementation of justice is an expression of love for the neighbor. One cannot be fair to another man is he hates him. Recently I had the pleasure of getting to know an American judge who used to be a pastor but decided to become a judge in order to implement justice himself and not only preach it. Is there a Bulgarian judge who has become a priest?

6. What is the result of the disregard to justice/fairness by the Bulgarian law and courts?

First of all this disregard alienated the Bulgarian citizen from them. They are not his law and his court. He hides from them, avoids them, does not rely on them and his security is the one of the game still unspotted by the hunter. His everyday life suggests the simple truth that only the strong and the rich can be right. He is a stranger to his state but the state is also strange to him and he has absolutely no intention to die for it.

As a result the drive for power is not only the well known passion but it is the real survival instinct, the only exit. The problem of the Bulgarian herd is not the evangelical dream of a good shepherd but the fact that almost each of its sheep dreams of becoming a wolf. Because of the corruption from above it cannot realize that observing just laws is the noblest participation in power. This sheep does not even notice that the hope for power unites all but power itself disunites all. And no one warned it that the sale of a soul has no buy-back.

Today’s Bulgarian law has three unwritten but iron-cast principles:

– NOT to restrict power,
– to maintain the INsecurity of the ordinary man,
– to paralyze private ownership and its inherent personal freedom.

A spontaneous build-up of a lawless society is underway but those without rights can easily escape therefrom-which is the only brake to the totalitarian lust.

The words of law is the blood which circulates among the organs of the state body and ensures their functioning. You do not need to destroy an institution- you should only send it contaminated blood in the form of a bad law. No judicial reform can neutralize such a legislative infection. There is no perfect engine which can work with improper fuel or an organism which can survive a constant poison. The endless speech of a judicial reform diverts the attention from the real source of infection- the political power itself which pretends having nothing to do with the legal degenerate it created. There might be already metastases in the judicial system too but the actual tumor is not there.

Mad wild bores entered the field of Bulgarian law and turn up by the root what has been planted long ago. In recent years we witness unseen legal lechery which does not spare millennium old European legal shrines. By a retrospective relevance are brutally invalidated rights which have been properly acquired within classical legal institutes under validly acting laws. This sight can only be compared with the Titanic life boats where the stronger kick out the weak and the helpless so that the latter sink and drown. The producers of this show may have not heard that the Law is like a biblical Testament/Promise – a solemn and sacred oath by the state to its citizens.

Laughing through tears are the shameful court fees in Bulgaria. The poorest EU country has the most expensive and least accessible courts and below the average quality. There is nowhere in Europe court fees of 4% over the claimed sum without a maximum cap on that fee! The court has been turned into an ordinary fiscal cashier.

One of the oldest states in Europe with incalculable millennia old cultural treasures has been for 20 years on the European pillar of shame for bad laws and bad justice. Why? Is there a curse or an evil magic on us? Do you notice that some foreigners already treat us like a pregnant maid to whom nobody has promised anything? And that they speak of our territory as if it is not ours? Yet our national anthem starts with the word “Proud…”.

For most Bulgarian rulers in the last two decade are valid St. Paul’s words (Romans 1:22):

“Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools.”

But not all of them are pathological thieves and professional traitors.

7. The caring children of Mother Bulgaria must first stop her group rape by the gang of wolves. The state starts and ends with justice. Let us return God to the Temple and let justice be the Northern star of Bulgarian law to light our way out of the marsh. The first step is to desire it. Look at how Cicero (On Duties VII:24) has said it more than 2000 years ago:

“There are two kinds of injustice- the one on the part of those who inflict wrong, the other on the part of those who, when they can, do not shield from wrong those upon whom it is being inflicted…For he who does not prevent or oppose wrong, if he can, is just as guilty of wrong as if he deserted his parents or his friends or his country.”

There is no justice without religion because religion is an adapted philosophy while philosophy is the religion of wisdom. And because justice passes through conscience- the divine temple in each of us (that feeling of harmony with the balance in Universe). Hence it is not strange if he who seeks justice looks up in the sky. “A great effort is the path to heaven – it is like going home”, says Lucius Seneca, Nero’s philosopher.

This writing is an attempt to achieve spiritual peace- for each of us and for all of us together. Yet nothing can be compared with the revelation of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)- with his eyes also in the above:

“Two things fill up my soul with a reviving
and ever growing admiration and reverence:
the starry sky above me and the moral law within me.”

 Christmas 2014                                                                                                                  Valentin Braykov