{"id":99561,"date":"2025-10-21T00:53:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T00:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=99561"},"modified":"2025-10-21T00:53:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T00:53:00","slug":"even-200-year-old-democracies-have-flaws-thaddeus-sory-warns-against-idolising-age-over-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=99561","title":{"rendered":"Even 200-year-old democracies have flaws \u2013 Thaddeus Sory warns against idolising age over justice"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Renowned lawyer and law lecturer Thaddeus Sory has cautioned against treating the age of a democracy as proof of its perfection, arguing that even constitutions centuries old still contain serious flaws.<\/p>\n

Speaking on JoyNews\u2019 PM Express on October 20, Mr. Sory said societies must focus on justice and accountability, not longevity. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are 200-year-old constitutions which have the most atrocious provisions,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a constitution of a so-called democracy which has an electoral college that can make a president win an election not with the majority of votes but with a minority \u2014 and it\u2019s still sitting there.\u201d<\/p>\n

He stressed that democracy is not about age but about integrity in how power is used and checked. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a country in which citizens can be deported, and it\u2019s the stellar example of democracy,\u201d he added, warning that constitutional age alone does not guarantee fairness.<\/p>\n

On the issue of judicial accountability, Mr. Sory defended the principle that the public must play a central role in assessing misconduct in high offices. <\/p>\n

He explained that \u201cjustice emanates from the people,\u201d and, therefore, the people\u2019s perception of what constitutes misconduct must guide disciplinary actions.<\/p>\n

He argued that terms like \u201cstated misbehaviour\u201d and \u201cincompetence\u201d are best interpreted through public standards, not strict codified rules. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf the Chief Justice gets drunk whilst in office, that\u2019s stated misbehaviour,\u201d he said. \u201cIf she decides that her family members can benefit from benefits that her own rulings say others are not entitled to, that\u2019s misbehavior too.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to him, such standards cannot all be spelled out in a constitution. \u201cIf you make it too ordinary and regulate every matter, it will look like a very ordinary document, and people won\u2019t respect it,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

Mr. Sory insisted that disciplinary committees handling such cases should be made up entirely of laypersons, since justice ultimately belongs to the public. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe those involved in the justice system judge ordinary men from whom justice emanates. If it affects us, let them also judge us,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n

He maintained that case-by-case judgment of misconduct is not arbitrary. \u201cIt has predictability,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf the head of an institution takes a decision that reverses justice and the public says they don\u2019t like that, then accountability has spoken.\u201d<\/p>\n

Citing past examples, he said society\u2019s moral compass, not procedural rigidity, should guide justice. <\/p>\n

\u201cCharlotte Osei\u2019s crime was that she saved Ghana GH\u00a215 million,\u201d he said. \u201cShe was removed because she canceled a contract that lacked value for money. <\/p>\n

\u201cProcurement officials even testified there was no breach, but she was still taken out. If that is what society wants, so be it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Sory concluded that accountability to the people must remain the cornerstone of governance. <\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody is accountable to society,\u201d he said. \u201cIf they say they don\u2019t like your style, you must answer to them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"EvenRenowned lawyer and law lecturer Thaddeus Sory has cautioned against treating the age of a democracy as proof of its perfection, arguing that even constitutions centuries old still contain serious flaws.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1299,1883,10,9,1519],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-democracy","category-national","category-politics","category-popular","category-thaddeus-sory"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=99561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99561\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=99561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=99561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=99561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}