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Beyond Our Civil Society

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BEYOND OUR CIVIL SOCIETY (BOCS)

No country lives a hundred percent up to its written constitution.

As from the end of the year 1963 we have seen many violations of the 1960 Constitution in Cyprus culminating as we know in the years 1974 and 1975. These are comparable in size only to the disaster that occurred in the years 1570 and 1571 due to the expedition of Lala Mustafa Pasha, the conquest and the establishment of the Ottoman Rule in Cyprus. This rule subsided under British Rule, but never vanished, (*1) even when Britain declared Cyprus a Colony in the year 1925.

Many traditions and institutions established in 1570 continued to function under the colonial legislation of Cyprus and remained in force in the 1960 Constitution by explicit provisions or implicitly under Article 188.

In 1964, the Supreme Court of Cyprus being unable to oversee the implementation of many violated provisions, resorted to the law of necessity (*2), accepting the rule salus populi summa lex esto.

Under this rule, what was useful, continued to be applied, not being vitiated by what had collapsed, as prescribed in the civil law principle utile per inutile non vitiatur.

The new status quo had been deemed as abnormal (έκρυθμη) and left marginal and hopeful expectations for the return of the island to legality and constitutionality.

Under these rulings there was no pause in the implementation of the 1960 Constitution, maintaining all the granted characteristics of a “constitution octroyée” (*3) such as these happen to be.

The Greek Cypriots declared by an overwhelming majority their loyalty to this Constitution in the referendum of 24^th April 2004.

The Republic of Cyprus continued to be recognized by all the civilized states and international organizations of the world, except Turkey which insists to consider it a vanished state.

It is up to Turkey to give the reasoning for their decision and act of non-recognition and not up to us to infer an explanation.

As we can see, the bond between the millet-bashi and the Sultan had simply been replaced by the 1960 Constitution and the accompanying international agreements.

This bond relied on the sword of Lala Mustafa and the Koran based on the premise of the “creed and the oath of subjection.”

The sanction for non-compliance is stated in the words of Ethnarch Procopios of Constantinople and New Rome, Ecumenical Patriarch in the late 18^th century addressed to the Bishop of Paros, Naxos and the Aegean Sea warning him that negligence on his behalf to abate a revolt against the Sultan, would have as a consequence:

“your holiness to suffer without prejudicium (*4) all those ills you are unable to reflect upon, for this carelessness of yours, without any mercy, and that you would repent in vain.” (*5)

Only in the case of Cyprus, it is not his holiness that had suffered, but … the people who assumed the responsibility and suffered the consequences.

Freedom is nowhere a licence as such, even in the most widely liberal states. Licence and improvisation incur only damage and loss, pain and tears. Appeal to the international law in a vague manner is not valid without citing the specific international instrument involved in the specific circumstances. The law of nations relies on the will of nations or at least the greater number of them. (*6) As ius voluntarium this law is the product of coincidence of political wills between states.

It is subject to the principle of reciprocity and has one and only one limitation, its subordination to natural law on which positive law is founded.

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Footnotes

(*1) See The Evcaf of Cyprus, p. 92-93, Cyprus Administrative Law by Zaim M.Nedjati LL.B. (Hons), Nicosia, 1970

(*2) See Cicero De Legibus III 3; Rudolf Von Ihering, Law as a Means to an End, 1977. P. 317; Law exists for the sake of Society, not society for the sake of law; Attorney General versus Mustafa Ibrahim and Others (1964) 3JSC, also 1964 C.L.R.

(*3) See paragraphs 16.4 and 18.8.3 Argyro Toumazou, Polity and Cyprus, Nicosia 2011.

(*4) praejudicium prior trial before the court.

(*5) See DAVLOS, Athens 2007, page 57-58.

(*6) See C. Th. Efstathiades, International Law, Athens, 1977, page 32.

Civil Society III

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Our Civil Society, strangled with too many layers of barbarity in the past centuries, managed to resume a bearably intact shape up to the mid 20^th century, despite the ravages of two World Wars that inflicted unprecedented and ineffable pain to the nations of Europe. As if drawn by an irresistible impulse of self-punishment, the island lapsed into a selfish and unbending mode of conflict between the two major communities.

Though we are not as insular as we might like to think and most often we are affected by the decisions and interests around us, when the resolution of the conflict approaches, the bearers of rights and obligations are not any extraterrestrial or alien creatures. Everyone and each one of us is a bearer of civil rights as a concrete, individual person.

We are the associates who form together an ailing civil society, ensnared with enormous derogations from civil norms. The primary mission of civil law is the safeguarding of civil rights. As set out in the Institutions, (Gai, I, 8) “all the Law that we apply is pertinent either to persons, or to things, or to actions.” This three-part division had been elaborated on the basis of the ancient Greek Rhetoric.

The first part comprises rules regulating the capacity of persons as well as rules that govern inter-personal relationships emanating from the family.

The second part comprises rules governing things and their transfer among living persons or by inheritance after death.

Finally, the third part provides for the procedures for the protection of such rights before the court. Under this part the existence of a right is based on the existence of an action.

The initiators of the conflict started from an improvised notion of freedom and insisted in its pursuit, until one day as from July 1974 the actual civil rights and liberties became null and void leaving their bearers dispossessed, in an era in which slavery had been thought repealed.

This inadvertence coupled with the relinquishing of Abraham’s bonds in the form of institutions emanating there from, left us in a derelict society, without past and without future.

Once the civil society path is severely undermined and the temporal path had already been unconditionally superseded and abandoned, the outcome is a persisting conflict.

The former path emerged from a divinity protecting friends, partners, litigants, civilians, and all the institutions that prop a viable and lasting state.

Such institutions comprise good laws, the administration of justice and peace being not only indivisible and interdependent, but also a sine qua non essential for the preservation of law and order and for good government.

The latter path, on the other hand, had been deemed anachronistic and grossly overlooked as a means that sustained the peaceful co-existence of the two communities – for four centuries – between 1570 and 1974.

Their common fatherhood fell into disregard and oblivion.

Civil Society II

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OUR CIVIL SOCIETY – Part II

As a matter of vogue, some speakers very often pay lip service to civil society in an abstract and undefined manner in the current decade. Their rhetoric is duly appreciated as benevolent, while at the same time this is far from being sincere. We know, civil society relies on civil law and civil law unequivocally protects civil rights. This logical necessity leaves much to be wanted in Cyprus as civil rights do not exist without their bearers.

One of the most important premises of civil law is the existence of natural or legal persons who are subjects of these rights and obligations. A reference to abstract and undefined human rights without the concrete participants of civil society is misleading.

The most recent violations of civil rights escalated in the period 1955-1975 and form the basis of continuous and unresolved disputes between the Greek and the Turkish community. These disputes have created a havoc of uncertainty undermining the security of law and of substantive justice in Cyprus. This outcome is exactly the opposite of the norms worthy of the name of civil society.

The charm of civil law lies in its perfection and orderliness as far as these have been preserved throughout the three last millennia despite the violent and severe mutations inflicted in the course of history. Ethnic Greeks honoured Goddess Athena as the giver of the goods of wisdom, intelligence and of the creative arts. She dwelled on Acropolis, because with her wisdom she founded civil society.

Many civil societies survive without paying head to a long forgotten Goddess, but it is hard to think of a civil society without civil rights. This touches the outermost point of ignorance and fallacy. Some of the most salient civil law violations in Cyprus concern the protection of personality, the autonomy of private will, the contract of compromise, life, liberty and property protected by public order rules.

Nevertheless, private will is not allowed to exclude the implementation of public order rules. Moreover, a provision of an alien public order cannot be applied when such provision contravenes domestic public order or moral norms; for more details, please see paragraph 3.2 in my digital e-book “POLITY AND CYPRUS – The Chain Store Paradox” ISBN 978-9963-9630-8-9.

In a post-crisis era such as we have witnessed and are still witnessing in the present year 2014, civil society has been drawn farther apart from our reach as more and more persons realize the grip of utter poverty and helplessness. Adverse circumstances seem to grow much faster around us than the ability of our mind to cope with.

My foresight and admonishing voice saying “DEVELOP YOUR POWER OF THOUGHT – 50 Steps for a Successful Mind Control Mindset” have been too weak to get attention by over worn and outwitted readers to whom it was addressed; for more details, please see on Amazon [dot] com, ISBN 978 9963 -9630–3–4.

Did you ever need to protect the law?

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Posted on August 11, 2013 by admin

Did you ever need the protection of the law? Read more:

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Argyro Toumazou is: a law-degree holder and Registered Lawyer and writer of the books: “Polity and Cyprus” and “Develop Your Power of Thought”.

Christodul J. Suliotis was: a publicist, Member of Parliament, Mayor and Advocate.

Being a charismatic writer, he registered with great precision and persuasion all the arguments that one needs to know, so that he or she may avail himself or herself in case of the emergence of a disagreeable and unpleasant position of having to defend their rights and interests before the court.

In his short discourse which he published in French in 1890 CJS referred to the problems faced by the magistrates in his country.

With this short treaty, entitled “La Réforme Judiciaire en Roumanie”, he enlightens, inspires, guides and gives you the essential edge to see your case, pending for years before the court, to advance forward. Inter alia he explains:

The distinction of powers principle.
Safeguarding of the functional independence of the courts and the permanence of judges.
The failure of the opposite practice in diverse countries.
The example of the Tammany Ring case of the State of New York in the 19^th century.

A bilingual version including the original French text and a Greek translation by Argyro Toumazou is to appear soon online for Kindle Readers.

Meta tag: case, Chipre, cyprès, Cypriot, Cyprus, Chypre, Kibris, Kypros, laws, lawyer, mail, NY, post, pro, tec, talks, university, Washington, Zypresse.

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Dear Readers, dear clients,

Because we grow and develop our press blog for you, we’ve changed our telephone/fax number, too. We apologize for the inconvenience. We hope to talk to you soon. Until then you can send/email us your comments:

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Kind regards

Argyro G. Toumazou

Αργυρώ Τουμάζου

Owner of Glowcal.org and Glowcaldx.com

P.S. Updating my press blog website with photos from metropole regions in the United States of America (USA) and Central Europe is a real challenge. I will keep you updated.

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