Thinking must never submit itself,
neither to a dogma,
nor to a party,
nor to a passion,
nor to an interest,
nor to a preconceived idea,
nor to anything whatsoever,
except to the facts themselves,
because for it to submit to anything else would be the end of its existence.
- Henri Poincaré, 1909 -
“To me the words of Poincaré mainly signify one shouldn’t let oneself be influenced by what - to use legal jargon - constant jurisprudence and law doctrine dictate. On the contrary, it means one should be sufficiently creative to question everything. It means ‘the’ truth does not exist, but is often prescribed by the ‘moment’. Exactly for that reason it should be our task to find the truth independent of the ‘moment’ and its contemporary sensitivities, not influenced by sacred cows and the presumed subservience to established ‘values’.”
Henri Berkmoes
Henri Berkmoes (°1954) is a retired colonel in the federal police and a lector at VUB. At a later age he started law school coinciding with his daughter. She as a day student, he as a night student. Bermoes graduated in 2002, together with his daughter, and today works as a lawyer in Antwerp.