Social Responsibility and Justice in an Emerging World-Order: Efficacious Oath-Practice as the Grundnorm
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African Society
Abstract / Summary
Oath-practice is one of the channels of Justice, and is provided for in the law Although oath declares a solemn promise and establishes some conduct and liability, many individuals act contrary to their promises. Lying under oath is perjury (a crime). Thus in an African traditional setting, oath involves some curse (or vindication)—it attracts the wrath ofgods if one acts against one 's allegiance. Hence oath is the final arbiter. Even though Kelson considers the grundnorm as the foundation ofall other laws, he fails to locate it in the sphere ofjustice. More-over, one must recognize that humans could be deceptive and, therefore, unreliable. In this case, oath is supreme in that no human category can validate oath further as its Grundnorm nor form the basis of its authority; obligation to it is a compulsion because of its efficacy. Accordingly, the main objective of this article is to analyze some literature on justice, espouse the pitfalls in Keisen ’s (positivist) theory and articulate the metaphysical bases of oath. To achieve this, the work adopts the qualitative/analytic methodology. It discovers that, based on the deceptive/finite nature of man and the African experience (as expressed among the Etsako ofNigeria), the very idea of a Grundnorm is extra-human. The work concludes that among traditional Africa, an efficacious oath is final arbiter and, therefore, the Grundnorm. Hence the work recommends that traditional African mode of oath-taking should be enshrined in modern court setting so as to assure ultimate justice.
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