JUDGES DARED ON BAD LAWS

Supreme Court Justice James Wood has called on his fellow judges to
''dare'' to show compassion and conscience by taking a stand against unjust
laws.

Reiterating his support for drug law reform, including the establishment of
legal shooting galleries, Justice Wood said yesterday that judges should
not remain silent on moral issues.

''It is my hope that there will be judges into the next century who are
prepared to dare, to listen to their conscience and their faith and to take
a stand against the unjust laws and policies of the secular state,'' the
Chief Judge at Common Law said.

The man who presided over the Police Royal Commission delivered his
thoughts from the pulpit of the Ashfield Uniting Church to a congregation
of about 100.

He was the first speaker in a planned series of addresses from prominent
Australians the Exodus Foundation's Rev Bill Crews wants to organise in the
church.

Rev Crews told yesterday's 10am service he had invited Justice Wood not to
deliver a sermon but to ''be the sermon''.

Justice Wood spoke of judges in Nazi Germany and Eastern Europe who had
ignored human rights abuses and done the bidding of the state.

He compared those jurists with men such as Frank M. Johnson who worked to
desegregate America as a District Court judge in Alabama in the 1950s and
1960s.

''It is unlikely that any judge in this country will ever face the fate or
the pressures those judges endured,'' Justice Wood said. ''At most they
risk having their decisions ridiculed by ill-informed politicians or being
dismissed as judicial activists.''

He had not faced such serious moral dilemmas but through the royal
commission and as a delegate to the drug summit he had been able ''to step
outside the shackles of my office''. He had faced ''the front line'' and
spoken to those who risked injustice ''at the hands of those who would
cling to the hard letter of the law and to harsh policy''.

Justice Wood then turned specifically to drugs.

''The reality is that drug abuse has become endemic. The failure of the
threat of imprisonment to halt the drug trade and the empty rhetoric of the
phrases ''war on drugs'' and ''zero tolerance ... are all too present.''

He said there were ''nowhere near enough'' places for rehabilitation, and
it was cheaper and easier for addicts to buy drugs than to obtain treatment.

''Having ventured into the front line I am convinced that there is a proper
role for the law and for the judge to balance strict law enforcement
against those responsible for this evil, with an approach that accommodates
conscience and compassion.''

Justice Wood said the royal commission had convinced him to support the
trial of licensed injection rooms, drug courts to divert minor offenders
from prison, needle exchanges, the use of naltrexone and even the trial of
heroin itself.

''There are those who say that judges have no business expressing such
ideas as I have - they should quietly apply the law and policy set by
others without question or protest.

''I do not believe that any judge can successfully complete their spiritual
journey by silence on an issue such as this.''