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50 Neth. J. Legal. Phil. 3 (2021)

handle is hein.journals/njlp50 and id is 1 raw text is: TiU Srtun  NrmSIIhenSISJuIVS ofLugal Phiflyipublihud by om i disc I and MSSW.UeISSWUCtoAniiMOUWUokIW


EDITORIAL



Where Were the Law Schools?


On   Legal  Education as Training for Justice and the Rule of Law
(Against   the  'Dark  Sides   of Legality')*

Iris van Domselaar



'Where  were the  lawyers?' This question has been raised many  times  and in re-
sponse  to many  episodes in modern  Western  history during which  fundamental
norms  of legality, morality, justice, and humanity were violated. This question has
formed  part of the attempt to reckon with the monstrosities committed during the
Second  World War, in which lawyers1 - exceptions aside - played an important fa-
cilitating role. For instance, in the Dutch context, studies on the functioning of the
Supreme  Court, the advocacy, and the notary have shed light on their limited abil-
ity and willingness to resist Nazi laws and protect those who were most in need of
legal protection. As a former president of the Dutch Supreme Court has put it: 'The
Supreme  Court has not been able to offer the protection, has not shown the inspir-
ing steadfastness that the Dutch population  expected. Looking back, we  can only
become  deeply saddened  and  overcome with  regret about how things went  wrong
at the time.'3

The question of the role played by lawyers has also been addressed in the context of
the severe, large-scale wrongs committed during the slavery system in the US4 and
the apartheid system in South Africa.' Questions have also been raised in reaction






*   The author would like to thank her colleagues at the editorial board and two anonymous readers
    for their valuable comments and suggestions.
1   In this contribution, I will use the term lawyer in a general sense, including all those who practice
    law, such as attorneys, in-house councils, legal advisors at state departments, and public prosecu-
    tors and judges.
2   See Corjo Jansen en Derk Venema, De Hoge Raad en de Tweede Wereldoorlog: Recht en Rechtsbeoe fen-
    ing in de Jaren 1930-1959 (Amsterdam: Boom, 2011); Joggli Meihuizen, Smalle Marges: De Neder-
    landse Advocatuur in de Tweede Wereldoorlog (Amsterdam: Boom, 2010); Raymund Schutz, Kille
    Mist: Het Nederlandse Notariaat en de Erfenis van de Oorlog (Amsterdam: Boom, 2016).
3   Speech delivered on 17 November 2011 by Geert Corstens, President of the Dutch Supreme Court,
    in reaction to the publication of the historical study by Corjo Jansen and Derk Venema on the role
    of the Supreme Court during the Second World War, https://www.hogeraad.nl/geschiedenis-hoge-
    raad/ (last accessed 15 May 2021).
4   E.g. Robert M. Cover, Justice Accused: Antislavery and the Judicial Process (Yale University Press,
    1975#).
5   E.g. Richard L. Abel, Politics by other Means: Law in the Struggle against Apartheid, 1980-1994
    (Abingdon: Routledge, 1995#).

Netherlands Journal of Legal Philosophy 2021 (50) 1                             3
doi: 10.5553/NJLP/.000000

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