00:00Yet both speak about human emotions.
00:02On January 31, 2020, at the ADAP Festival in Karachi,
00:06the former Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Asif Saeed Khosa,
00:11delivered a beautiful address titled Literature in Law.
00:14He began by remembering Justice Fakiruddin G. Ibrahim,
00:19a man of great dignity and character.
00:21He served this nation with honesty and grace.
00:24As a lawyer, judge governor, and law minister,
00:27Justice Khosa said that people like him leave behind legacies,
00:31not just memories.
00:32Justice Khosa then spoke about the deep connection between law and literature.
00:38He said, humorously,
00:40we all know relationships like father-in-law and mother-in-law,
00:44but have you ever heard of literature and law?
00:46He explained that literature is the art of using words beautifully.
00:50When that art enters a court judgment,
00:53the judgment becomes more than a decision.
00:55It becomes a piece of literature.
00:57Many of the world's greatest writers were once lawyers.
01:01Francis Bacon, Goethe, Dickens, Kafka, even John Don,
01:05and many judges, including Justice Khosa himself,
01:10studied literature before law.
01:12This connection between art and justice
01:14makes legal writing more human and powerful.
01:17Even Shakespeare once wrote,
01:18The first thing we do,
01:20let's kill all the lawyers.
01:22A line that still makes us smile
01:24and think deeply about society's bond with the law.
01:27Justice Khosa shared examples from around the world.
01:31In England, judges quoted Milton's Paradise Lost
01:34to explain what a home means.
01:36In America,
01:37one judge compared a case to Victor Hugo's Les Miserables.
01:40And another quoted Palestinian poet,
01:43Naomi Shiavnai,
01:45to defend human rights.
01:47In India,
01:48Justice Markunde Khatju began a judgment
01:50with a poem by Fouiz Ahmed Fouiz.
01:53And that poetic appeal led to the release
01:55of an Indian prisoner from a Pakistani jail,
01:58such as a power of literature,
01:59to touch even the conscience of nations.
02:02Justice Khosa himself used literature
02:04in many of his judgments.
02:06In the Asia Bibi case,
02:08he quoted Shakespeare,
02:10she was more sinned against than sinning.
02:12In the Panama Papers case,
02:14he referred to Balzac,
02:16Mario Puzo,
02:17and Khalil Gibran.
02:18And in the contempt of court case
02:20against Prime Minister Jelani,
02:22he wrote powerful words
02:23inspired by Gibran's poem,
02:25Pity the Nation.
02:27He said,
02:27Pity the Nation that elects a leader
02:29as a redeemer,
02:30but expects him to bend every law
02:32to favor his benefactors.
02:34These lines were more than law.
02:36They were a message to every citizen.
02:39Justice Khosa reminded us
02:40that literature has often changed
02:42the course of law itself.
02:44Charles Dickens wrote about the poor,
02:45and British labor laws were reformed.
02:48Uncle Tom's cabin exposed
02:50the cruelty of slavery,
02:51and America abolished it.
02:53The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
02:54revealed the suffering of workers.
02:56And led to stronger food
02:59and labor laws.
03:00The Grapes of Wrath
03:01inspired compassion
03:02for migrant workers
03:03during the Great Depression.
03:05Words, when written with truth,
03:07have the power to change
03:08entire societies.
03:10At the end of his speech,
03:11Justice Khosa said that
03:13sometimes judges
03:14cannot respond directly,
03:15but literature gives them a voice.
03:18He quoted the poet
03:19famed of Rias,
03:20who said,
03:20I did not say this,
03:22for he said it.
03:23Through this,
03:24he showed that literature
03:25gives expression to silence
03:27and humanity to law.
03:29When law listens to the heart,
03:31it becomes poetry.
03:33When literature seeks justice,
03:35it becomes law.
03:36Together,
03:37they make the world
03:38more just
03:38and more beautiful.
03:40Would you like me
03:41to now generate this
03:42as a male English voiceover,
03:44MP3 format,
03:46Pakistani accent?
03:47Ready for uploading,
03:48Clipchamp?
03:54Clipchamp?
04:11Clipchamp?
04:17Really?
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