How are Spirituality, Law, and Politics Linked?

In 2020 I joined a unique organisation, one that unites 3 words I had previously never seen stitched together before - spirituality, law, and politics. Whilst spirituality plays a core role in my own unique model of Holistic Law Practice, I had ironically until then seen ‘politics’ generally as bereft of compassion and kindness and more about power and wealth. I say ‘ironically’, as my own integration of the understanding of ‘oneness’ has become more deeply embedded in my mind, body, and soul, more does it make sense that rather than ostracize and judge parts of our society, we need to include and accept them- politics and all!

The Project for Integrating Spirituality, Law, and Politics (PISLAP) is, “an international network of lawyers, law professors, law students, legal workers, and others who are seeking to develop a new spiritually informed approach to law and social change”. This message resonated with me at once. PISLAP is based in the USA and in October 2023, for the first time, I travelled from Gibraltar to USA to meet Perry Saidman and Nanette Schorr in ‘full person’- as I joked, as until then, our interactions had been limited to ‘half body’ zoom meets. It was wonderful to give both Perry and Nanette, a warm, physical hug and enjoy their company for the day.

The Power Law Has to Transform Society

The PISLAP meeting attended by people from legal and non-legal backgrounds, opened with Perry’s address. “PISLAP has the deep belief that the law has the power to transform society. The law creates rules and regulations that we live by and governs relationships between us and in that sense, it is a reflection of larger society. If we change the way law is practiced and experienced as well as the substantive law on which our relationships are based, we believe we can transform the larger culture within which the law operates”. 

Lawyers as a Moral Presence for their Clients/ Advisers with a Moral Direction

PISLAP’s Mission Statement found on their website reads: “Our work calls on the legal profession to develop and strengthen its role as a helping profession. We do this by supporting the legal profession and seeing the law as a calling with a moral direction rather than a trade for sale to the highest bidder which is the way many people look at law and lawyers”.

PISLAP, Perry reminded us, encourages lawyers to be a moral presence for their clients and support their clients’ own decision making about what courses of actions to pursue. Rather than the lawyer telling the client what to do or recommending, you lay out the options, and the pros and cons and ask the client what they want to do. Advisers with a moral direction. These words validate my own approach to law practice from 1998/99 onwards. To me, empowering clients to make decisions from a clear mind, free of anger and judgment, has yielded positive results in resolving complex legal disputes. I see the lawyer-client relationship more as a collaboration of shared power, than me as a lawyer having the conventional approach of ‘power over’ the client.

How do Law and Politics interact?

Perry continued, “We want to change the law to effect moral and social change. The way to do that is where politics comes in. To effect social change, we need to change the rules and regulations we all live by. Firstly, we must create a critical mass of people who want the law to change. For example, criminal justice work and criminal justice reform. The conventional approach to criminal justice is punitive- lock them up and throw away the key. But a large segment of society see the senselessness of that approach and they want criminal justice reform. PISLAP has promoted for many years a restorative justice approach that brings the victim and offender together in a dialogue so that healing and perhaps even forgiveness can occur. The offender can be restored to society rather than locking him or her away up in a prison”. 

As a member of Restorative Justice on the Rise, founded by Molly Rowan-Leach, (USA) and a guest on her podcast in May 2023, I have learned that the world has seen a great emergence of Restorative Justice programs: in civil and criminal courts, in prisons and in schools. My own Holistic Model of Law Practice prides itself on steering clients away from court rooms to resolve their differences (when appropriate), addressing root causes of the manifestation of conflict and promoting healing and the restoration of relationships applicable to all contexts.  

Spirituality

Perry closed speaking to us of spirituality. “Spirituality is defined by some people as involving the recognition of a feeling, or sense of belief, that there is something greater than ourselves, something more to being human than a sensory experience; that the greater whole of which we are all a part is divine in nature. Peter Gabel was instrumental in defining spirituality for PISLAP. Peter said, ‘It’s about our longing for human connection, for mutual recognition in a way that affirms our humanity and inner goodness. To promote a caring, compassionate, kind and loving and connective world”. 

I was grateful for the reminder that lawyers, clients, and others can achieve this deeper connection through the practice of meditation, informal gatherings, attending conferences, and simply telling our stories to each other- even if in zoom calls if we cannot in person. 

“Spirituality implies a sense of openness to others and importantly caring about our fellow human beings. We aspire to truly see each other, see the humanity in each other”. 

Progressive Social Change

In closing Perry concluded PISLAP’s vision and mission is to “…bring about progressive social change, manifested by changes in the law in a way that emphasises our connectedness through mutual recognition, deep respect for each other and our inherent desire for a compassionate, caring, and loving world in which we live. We believe that law can help bring a world into being where people can fully recognize and affirm each other's humanity and that through new legal processes we can foster empathy, compassion, and mutual understanding”. 

This I believe is possible for all lawyers if each of us takes a step back to reflect on our ‘why’ we joined the legal profession, on what justice looks like and feels like to us, and we commit from the heart today to take if only one action step towards bringing more peace and unity through our daily law practice.  

Perry Saidman is a recognized U.S. design law pioneer, blazing a trail in this specialty long before it became popular. He is perhaps the leading US advocate for legal protection for industrial designs. He is also involved in Restorative Justice in Washington DC schools. Perry has been a member of PISLAP since it was founded in 1996, and a long-time member of its Executive Committee. 

Nanette Schorr has been deeply involved in the development of PISLAP since its inception as the Task Force on Law and Meaning in 1996. She worked closely with co-founder Peter Gabel to launch and sustain the organization. She is currently the director of the Education Law Unit at Bronx Legal Services, where she has for decades represented low-income people in the borough of the Bronx.

For information on Amber’s Holistic Law Practice Model, email amber@amberlaw.gi