Belief is Mightier - June 9

Recently, I was reflecting on what fascinates me about law. More than anything, I settled on the notion that law is the place where words trump brute power, where what we write organizes and effects reality. Reading the letters from prisoners has led me to realize that there is something deeper though.

Yesterday, I was watching Werner Herzog's "Aguirre: The Wrath of God." At the start of the movie we watch Aguirre orchestrate a mutiny and place an ineffectual nobleman in charge, declaring a new state and a rebellion against the Habsburg Empire. At the time this seems ridiculous to all of the characters, but as the film progresses things begin to change. The nobleman is fed richly while the rest of the men starve. At one point the 'Emperor' is sitting on the raft with a map and observes that after traveling for a few more days his new country will be larger than Spain (assuming that we credit his assertion that he can lay claim to everything that he sees from the raft). As anyone who has seen the film knows, these fantasies are soon cut short by fever, delirium, starvation and attacks by the natives. But, the fact remains that the men of the expedition altered their behavior to conform to Aguirre's revolutionary document or, more accurately, his insane vision. In this sense, law is not simply the place where words create our world, but the place where a certain vision or ideal of the world is put into practice. Laws are instrumental in the creation of our own reality. Obviously there are issues with who writes the laws and how well a law is actually utilized once it is written, but in the abstract sense laws are the real way in which we attempt to order the world according to our beliefs and values.

This all ties back to my work with Fed Up. In their letters prisoners make constant reference to international human rights treaties that the United States has signed, and human rights organizations themselves use these same treaties as one of their main legal supports. They BELIEVE in the power of these treaties and their words. Clearly the connection is not a solid as a lawmaker believing in a principle and implementing it through a law, but I wonder if there isn't some similarity. These treaties have been written and signed, but it is clear that belief in them has not yet reached a certain threshold. By relying upon them, human rights workers and the victims of human rights abuses give them some validity, spread awareness of them and save them from the dustbin of history. For the second half the 20th century the United States has paid heed to UN treaties whenever it was convenient or beneficial, but the effect of recent patterns and events - eroding sovereignty brought on by globalization, the fiasco of defying the security council to invade Iraq and the fact that we are less and less able to make a claim to being the sole global superpower - may be to eliminate our ability to act hypocritically and in defiance of international norms. It seems that pressuring our stated commitments to the international community should become an increasingly effective strategy for reform in the years to come.

NB: There is a question here about the relationship between belief and force (i.e. constructivism vs. realism) that I'm too lazy to think about now.