Free Born John: A Hero of Liberty
One of the greatest bulwarks of liberty is the independent judiciary. John Lilburne, the great Leveller, refused to recognize the right of the secret courts of Star Chamber to try him; Britons and Americans owe to him the right of trial by jury in a public court.
A similar story may be playing out in Saudi Arabia. According to journalist Faiza Saleh Ambah in the Washington Post (“The Case The Saudis Can’t Make” [requires simple registration]), after a group of reformists in the kingdom were arrested,
In jail the reformists were told they would be released on the condition that they sign statements pledging to direct their demands to official ears only and not talk to the press. One by one, they accepted the government’s offer and went home.
All but three, that is. Not only did academics Matrouk al-Faleh and Abdullah al-Hamid and poet Ali al-Domeini refuse the conditional release, but they also raised the stakes by demanding a public trial and the implementation of new Saudi laws allowing legal counsel.
The story is an inspiring one. Let us hope that it has the same general outcome as the story of John Lilburne — the right to an open and fair trial under clearly understood principles of law, but without the suffering that Lilburne endured for our freedom. His last words: “I shall leave this Testimony behind me, that I died for the Laws and Liberties of this Nation.”
I have loaned away my copy of Fareed Zakharia’s excellent book The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad, but in it Zakharia elegantly shows how the independent judiciary, dispensing justice fairly and objectively, is the first institutional image of a free society that should come to mind; the voting booth may be important, but is only of value when combined with the idea of law that is not merely a measure of shifting popular sentiment.
Anyone who throws the word “democracy” around like it’s salt on french fries should read The Future of Freedom.
The best and most succinct line in the book by far occurs when Zakaria writes “The ‘Western model of government’ is best symbolized not by the mass plebiscite but the impartial judge” (20).
A note on tactics: Any individual willing to die/face indefinite imprisonment for a cause is far too valuable to be allowed to do so.
al-Faleh, al-Hamid, and al-Domeini have just bet their asses that the Saudi government will be cowed into granting their requests by their strength of will. Sort of like playing Russian Roulette with six bullets.