The judge does not make the Law. It is the People that make the Law. Therefore if a Law is unjust, and if the Judge judges according to the Law, that is justice, even if it is not just.
It is the duty of a Judge to do justice, but it is only the People that can be just. Therefore if justice be not just, that is not to be laid at the door of the Judge, but at the door of the People, which means at the door of the White People, for it is the White People that make the Law.
Cry, the Beloved Country p. 191
This is in reference to the prevailing system in South Africa pre-apartheid. I want to focus on the idea that only the People can be just.
We must all seek a just society: both in the way we live and in the way we encourage others to live by our laws, rules, and regulations. Ultimately each of us is responsible for our own spheres of influence. A legislator has a bigger sphere as his or her decisions will determine on a wider scale how a society seeks justice. A parent has a different sphere; an employer still a different sphere. But each person will make choices, will set boundaries, will make rules by which he or she lives and how he or she will interact with others and expect others to interact with them.
And if we are left to our own devices, we will necessarily enact unjust rules and policies and ways of interacting with the world that benefit us at the expense of others. Therefore, we must turn to God. Only he defines what is just from a pure motive: a motive of sacrificial love. People unaffected by God’s love will clamor for meaning through other people or through power or through some other self-serving mechanism. But those compelled by God’s love can truly seek a society that is just for all, for the one who is loved by God does not need the love or approval or service of another.
Lingering Over Leaves 