TIRANA, Nov 22 /ATA/ – Prime Minister Edi Rama used his “Note of the Day” column on Saturday to share a reflection on Robert H. Jackson, one of the most prominent figures of American democratic jurisprudence, former U.S. Attorney General, Supreme Court justice and chief architect of the prosecution at the Nuremberg trials.
Rama said Jackson’s lessons remain highly relevant today, particularly his warning that “justice dies when prosecutors chase people, not crimes, and when the power of one institution oversteps the constitutional limits of another.”
The government head highlighted his favourite message from Jackson: “Power has never been more decent than in the moment it subjects itself to the judgment of an independent justice.”
Rama shared Jackson’s 1940 speech, “The Federal Prosecutor”, in which Jackson underscored the extraordinary power of prosecutors and the danger when that power is misused. Jackson argued that prosecutors must be impartial, independent, fair and guided solely by the mission of delivering justice, not by winning cases or pursuing personal motives.
Rama said these principles remain a moral compass for every democratic system and a reminder that justice, as an independent branch, guarantees liberty and constitutional order.
Full text of Prime Minister Edi Rama’s post:
NOTE OF THE DAY
I have long been impressed by the monumental figure of Robert H. Jackson, one of the brightest minds known to democratic justice.
As U.S. Attorney General, Supreme Court justice and architect of the prosecution at the epochal Nuremberg trial, he laid the moral foundations of the prosecutor’s role in a modern rule-of-law state.
His words, delivered in the middle of the last century, remain a guide for anyone who believes that justice must be independent but never irresponsible; strong, but never blind to constitutional boundaries.
And today I am sharing with you Robert H. Jackson’s historic speech, because the warnings of America’s legendary chief prosecutor, the man who wrote the modern ethics of the democratic prosecutor, sound as if they were written for us.
Jackson taught the democratic world that when a prosecutor looks for the person before the crime, justice dies; and when one branch of power enters the territory of another, the democratic constitution can no longer breathe – it suffocates.
As for me personally, he taught me something deeply inspiring that keeps me moving straight ahead – something none of my detractors understands, nor ever will, though fortunately most Albanians do. It is his lapidary saying: “Power has never been more dignified than in the moment it accepts to submit itself to the judgment of an independent justice.”
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