Prince Shōtoku

“"Prince Shotoku and the (Non-)Independence of Law" by Massimo Introvigne”

“A key point of the texts attributed to Shotoku is that if rulers and bureaucrats believe they are the owners rather than the servants of the law, corruption will follow.Corruption was already a problem in the 7th century, and the Shotoku writings define it as privileging the officials’ private interests over the public ones.…Manipulating the public in the interest of the private is the very definition of corruption.”