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ABSTRACT This essay is a study of the philosophy of state craft of Pakistan's most eminent Chief Justice-A.R. Cornelius, whose tenure on the Supreme Court was from 1951 to 1968. The analysis is based on a remarkable friendship between Cornelius and the author which started in 1960 when the author was an advisor to the Government of Pakistan. It continued with a series of letters from Cornelius through 1970. These sources are augmented by analysis of hundreds of court decisions, speeches and articles by Cornelius. Cornelius developed a profound admiration for Islam which deepened towards the end of his life. He died in 1991 at the age of 88. As a self-described `Neo-Thomist' he synthesized Christian and Islamic values through the medium of natural law. This synthesis is a case study in the compatibility of Islam and Christianity developed not on theological grounds but within the context of jurisprudence. It negates the contention that Islam and the West are necessarily at odds and that their interaction will result in a `clash of civilizations'. This essay is an adaptation of the first chapter of the author's Chief Justice Cornelius of Pakistan: an analysis with letters and speeches (Karachi, Oxford University Press, 1999). It appears here with permission of the publisher. The text of Cornelius' letters and speeches and the memorial lecture referred to as 'Appendix' and `Letter to the Author' in notes 2, 32, 40, 47, 60, 65, 66, 75, 84, 91, 122, 135, 139 are included in that volume.
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Of the fifty-five states which declare themselves to be constitutively Islamic, Pakistan alone has had a non-Muslim at the pinnacle of its judicial system. Other Muslim polities such as Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq have had non-Muslims in important ministerial posts, although usually for short periods. Senegal's president for twenty years was Leopold Senghor, a Roman Catholic. But none has had a non-Muslim in the judiciary or in any important position over an unbroken tenure of two decades. A. R. Cornelius, a Roman Catholic, had a distinguished legal career from the establishment of Pakistan in 1947 to his resignation as law minister in the Yahya Khan cabinet in 1971. For seventeen years of this period he served on the Supreme Court.' From 1960 until...