Our guest speaker for the evening, The Honorable Judge Frank Labuda, began his presentation on "The Rule of Law" program by explaining that it was established as an adjunct by the state department to send him and others like our guest, professor David Chavkin, overseas to foreign countries to teach people how our Laws and Courts work instead of sending military battalians of young men and women as was done in the past. 
 
 
He gave a brief history of how rule of law started over 1200 years ago with the crafting of the "Magna Cart" that established "Terra Lexus" (which roughly translates to "Rule of Law Over the Earth").  For the first time in western civilization, some of the power was taken from the King and given to the rule of men (barons and other nobility). 
Our government is subject to the rule of law.  Judge Labuda explained that if a person commits a crime, it is a jury that decides whether that person is innocent or guilty, it's not the police, or the courts, or the prosecutors, or the judge.  This is a concept that is still foreign to most of the world.  Our rule of law has gone unbroken for over 300 years.  Although people are arrested by the police in other countries, what happens after that is grossly different country.  We have a judicial system where a person is brought before a jury of randomly selected people first to see if there should even be a trial (the indictment process ) and then another jury if there is to be a trial.  
Using a projector with a Powerpoint presentation Judge Labuda showed images of the many countries he visited lecturing to judges and law students on how our judicial system works. Judge Labuda lectured in many third world countries in western African (Benin and Ghana) and Eastern European.  It was interesting to see how many young people in foreign countries are training to be lawyers.
Judge Labuda answered many questions from the members and it made his presentation both interesting and informative.