Doctrine of necessity

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section needs to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please help improve this article with relevant internal links. (December 2007)

This article does not cite any references or sources. (December 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Doctrine of necessity is a phrase commonly referred to a controversial judgment in 1954 by Justice Muhammad Munir to validate Ghulam Mohammad, the Governor General of Pakistan's, use of non-constitutional emergency powers. Earlier Mohammad had dissolved Pakistan's first constituent assembly, dismissing the president (speaker) of the assembly Maulvi Tamizuddin. Tamizuddin had challenged the decision, and although the High court had ruled in Maulvi Tamizuddin's favor, Justice Munir thought otherwise. In his verdict, Munir declared it was necessary to go beyond the constitution to what he claimed was the Common Law, to general legal maxims, and to English historical precedent. He relied on Bracton's maxim 'that which is otherwise not lawful is made lawful by necessity', and the Roman law maxim urged by Jennings, 'the well-being of the people is the supreme law.' This verdict set the precedent for lame excuses as legal justifications for all subsequent martial laws in Pakistan.