DIRECTOR’S
COLUMN: HONORING
CHIEF JUSTICE WILLIAM S. RICHARDSON
by Melody Kapilialoha
MacKenzie Director
Welina nui ‘oukou
e nā hoa makamaka,
In Hawaiian, admiration for a wise person is expressed in the phrase,
“ka lama kū o ka no‘eau,” literally meaning “the standing torch of wisdom.”
This is indeed a fitting description of former Hawai‘i Supreme Court
Chief Justice William S. Richardson. Recently, the American Bar Association
presented its national Spirit of Excellence Award to CJ Richardson.
Here at the Law School that bears his name and especially for those
of us who have benefited from his decisions – both in his role as a
jurist and as a wise mentor and leader – we take special pleasure in
this national recognition of our own CJ Richardson.
Born into a working-class family of Native Hawaiian, Chinese, and Caucasian
ancestry, CJ understood the social, economic, and political deprivations
felt by many, and he committed himself to social justice by changing
Hawai‘i’s political and government structure. He served as Lieutenant
Governor from 1962 to 1966 and then as the first Native Hawaiian Chief
Justice of the Hawai‘i Supreme Court. Throughout his career, CJ Richardson
consistently encouraged Native Hawaiians and other underrepresented
groups to work within the legal system to make positive change for all
of Hawai‘i’s people.
As Chief Justice of the
Hawai‘i Supreme Court, CJ Richardson also mentored generations of young
law clerks, many of them Native Hawaiians who have become leaders in
the community. Working closely with his fellow justices, CJ Richardson
helped to incorporate Native Hawaiian traditional and customary practices
into state law and expanded public rights. CJ recently reflected on
his court’s approach to these important issues:
Hawai‘i has a unique
legal system, a system of laws that was originally built on an ancient
and traditional culture. While that ancient culture had largely been
displaced, nevertheless many of the underlying guiding principles
remained. During the years after the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian
Kingdom in 1893 and through Hawai‘i’s territorial period, the decisions
of our highest court, reflected a primarily Western orientation and
sensibility that wasn’t a comfortable fit with Hawai‘i’s indigenous
people and its immigrant population. We set about returning control
of interpreting the law to those with deep roots in and profound love
for Hawaii. The result can be found in the decisions of our Supreme
Court beginning after Statehood. Thus, we made a conscious effort
to look to Hawaiian custom and tradition in deciding our cases – and
consistent with Hawaiian practice, our court held that the beaches
were free to all, that access to the mountains and shoreline must
be provided to the people, and that water resources could not be privately
owned.
This new yet old way of
thinking sometimes drew criticism from government officials and the
legal profession, but it has become recognized as an enlightened approach
for our distinctive, multi-cultural homeland.
Nothing is more striking
about CJ Richardson’s achievements than his longstanding and still ongoing
commitment to opening educational and professional avenues for the islands’
most disadvantaged groups. Many consider the establishment of the Law
School in 1973 to be CJ’s crowning achievement. He understood that those
with the greatest stake in building a more just and equitable society
were often denied the opportunity to attend law school because of the
prohibitive cost. Determined that all in Hawai‘i should have the opportunity
to obtain a legal education, he fought an uphill battle over many years
to create and give shape to Hawai‘i’s only law school. Recently, CJ
talked about the fulfillment of his vision for the Law School:
Today, the Law School
has the largest and most diverse minority student population in the
country – over seventy percent. And fifteen percent of our students
are Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. We are one of only a few
schools in the country offering resources in Pacific-Asian legal studies,
ocean law studies, and environmental studies. And we are the only
Law School to offer a concentrated course of study in Native Hawaiian
Law. The school’s commitment to its mission - to promote justice,
ethical responsibility and public service – has grown stronger each
year.
Because of CJ’s perseverance,
over two thousand men and women—many from underrepresented, minority,
and indigenous Hawaiian communities—are practicing law, holding elected
office, teaching law, serving in the judiciary, and leading community
services organizations in Hawai‘i and around the world.
CJ’s vision also lives on
in the Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law, which supports
Native Hawaiian law students, engages in discourse with the Hawaiian
community about legal issues that affect their lives, and undertakes
wide-ranging programs to increase education and scholarship on unique
aspects of Native Hawaiian law.
For the Law School’s 2005
graduation ceremony, graduate Kahikino Noa Detweiler wrote and presented
an Oli Aloha, a chant honoring CJ Richardson. As Noa explained, the
chant compares CJ Richardson to the lehua blossom, a poetic reference
for a person of profound skill and wisdom.
The Oli Aloha alludes to
Kamehameha’s Law of the Splintered Paddle, the law that declared, “Let
the old men, the old women and the children go and sleep by the wayside;
let them be not molested.” As one version of the mo‘olelo about this
law recounts, several commoners of Puna were fishing when the young
chief Kamehameha happened upon them. Knowing only that a stranger and
a chief approached and fearing trouble, the men fled; Kamehameha pursued.
When Kamehameha’s ankle was caught in a lava crevice, Kaleleiki, one
of the fishermen, turned back and with his paddle, hit Kamehameha on
the head, splitting the paddle in two. Years later, when Kaleleiki and
his companions were brought before Kamehameha for punishment, instead
of putting them to death, Kamehameha recognized his own responsibility
in causing the incident. He proclaimed the Law of the Splintered Paddle,
protecting even the most defenseless from oppression by those with more
power and authority.
Thus, in Noa’s tribute to
CJ Richardson, I was reminded that the Law School’s graduates fulfill
CJ Richardson’s highest aspirations for us when we protect those who
are powerless from those who have power, when we fight for those who
lack economic security and life’s basic necessities, and when we seek
justice for Hawai‘i’s native people and, indeed, for all people in our
homeland.
The last pauku or verse
of the Oli Aloha exhorts us - those who have so benefited from Chief
Justice Richardson’s gift - to heed the call, to stand and persevere,
and to hold fast to the splintered paddle of Kaleleiki.
Eō e nā punahele o ka pua
lehua
E kū! E ho‘omau!
E pa‘a a pa‘a i ka hoe māmala a Kaleleiki e!
Mahalo to Dean Avi Soifer and Susan K. Serrano who worked
on an earlier version of this article and a special mahalo a nui loa
to Kahikino Noa Detweiler. The Hawaiian saying that opens this article
as well as the English version of the Law of the Splintered Paddle are
from Mary Kawena Pukui, ‘ŌLELO NO‘EAU, HAWAIIAN PROVERBS & POETICAL
SAYINGS (Bishop Museum Press, 1983).