The rule of law in service of freedom

I heard a story on NPR today about a recent speech that Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy gave to the American Bar Association. Kennedy contends that the jury is still out in the court of world opinion with respect to a commitment to the Western idea of democracy. He challenged the lawyers to move beyond a cold, rational idea of the law and instead make the case for the rule of law as something that can serve the cause of freedom. As summed up by Dahlia Lithwick in her article about the speech at Slate.com:

Perhaps this country is actually ready for what he's selling: the twin notions that the world is an enormous, embattled, struggling place and that the law has a responsibility to try to fix it. Not just in service of the Constitution, but in the service of freedom.

The speech reminded me of a movement within the legal profession that I heard about in 2003. Kim Wright, a lawyer in Portland and founder of the Renaissance Lawyer website, had shared about "law as a healing profession" at a seminar we were in; the thrust of the movement is to move beyond the adversarial aspects of the practice of law and identify ways that lawyers can instead bring people together. For more information, check out the Renaissance Lawyer page on transformational law.