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Can a Minority Retain Its Identity in Law?

The 2005 Multatuli Lecture

Job Cohen

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is an honor and a pleasure for me to address you here today in
the Grote Kerk of Breda in the context of the 2005 Multatuli Lecture.
The theme about which I have been asked to say something is: Can a
minority retain its identity in law?

Introduction

Since this is the Multatuli Lecture, let me start out from his work, with
a quote from ‘‘Idea Number 7’’ about the relationship of majorities to
minorities:

Ruling by a majority of votes is the law of the strongest applied

amicably. It means: if we fought, we would win... so let’s skip the

fighting. This system leads not so much to truth as to quiescence.

Yet only for the moment, and as a palliative, since the members of

the minority usually think they are right and are individually

stronger, not so much because of their awareness of being right as

because of their more closed ranks and their greater incentive to

make an effort. When a minority grows into a majority, it loses the

specific value it initially gained by enlarging its numbers. It adopts

all the errors of its defeated opponents, who, in their turn, make a

virtue of defeat. The upshot is sad.

Asking about minorities presupposes that there is a majority. Today’s
story therefore concerns not only ‘‘minorities’’ but also the ‘‘majority.’’

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