RELIGION AND SOCIETY

Religion and Society ~ 430 ~ Only then can one wield the golden scales of justice, by which the rights of the people are weighed, and by which even the sovereign’s rights are safeguarded.” “What, am I too subject to the law?” demanded an extremely incensed King James. “To say so is treason.” Quoting Bracton, Lord Coke replied: “The monarch is subject to no man; but he is subject to God and the Law.”13 The fact is, when we subtract the divine element from justice, we are left with no logical grounds for saying that the monarch (or anyone else for that matter) is subject to the law. The same goes for groups of individuals. When the law has been devised by a number of human minds; when it is by their sanction that laws are exacted; when they, as legislators, can annul the law or maintain it at will: can there be any basis on which they themselves may be subject to that law? When man himself is the law-maker, he is entitled to assume the powers of lord and sovereign. He himself is God. He himself is the law. How is it possible then that he be made subject to the law?