"Visible Justice" - you respond

04/08/2008

I always feel that referring to the legal system as the Justice System is widely inaccurate. My own view is that we do not actually have a justice system, only a penal system; I also hold the view that, often, the correlation between law and justice is very low.

The law is so complex that even Lawyers have to spend hours arguing about its interpretation. If the law does anyone any good, it is the lawyers, who get very rich from the system, often manipulating the interpretation of the law to secure the release of clients whom they know are “guilty as charged”. Of course, in order to enjoy the services of such a lawyer usually demands that the client has a substantial amount of money, so the less well-off are denied this level of representation.

 

Nowadays we hear lots of talk about “criminal justice” – have you ever heard anyone talk about “victim justice”? The laws of evidence are such that (alleged) criminals are given what many would regard as an unfair advantage. We hear many complaints about the failure of our police personnel to bring criminals to “justice”, but they have to satisfy so many rules that one sometimes wonders how they ever manage to find the necessary evidence and prove that it was “fairly” obtained.

 

Justice, in many respects, is, in my opinion, rather thin on the ground and I fail to see how making what is called “justice” more visible will make us any better off.

Anthony Breed