Bow down before Solomon

By Alain Lévêque

The law is one thing. Justice is quite another. Laws are enacted by politicians and the political class is hardly something one readily associates with justice. Of course that is not to say that because most pollies tend to pass laws which protect the interests of their party and those who control and finance it that they are all fork-tongued thugs. No, some are good people like you and … hmm, no true, my old grandad told me he met a good one back in 1944. Anyway, the point be that once enacted, laws are administered by the legal industry (judiciary). Here we are led to believe that once conniving lawyers put on judge’s wigs that suddenly they all morph into mini-Solomons capable of delivering flawless decisions and perfect justice.

The unfashionable truth is the legal industry provides legal services; it does not dispense justice much less perfect justice. That commodity remains as elusive for modern man as it was for troglodytes. Why? Because it is nigh impossible for a perishable mammal in a cape and wig to deliver a truly impartial and value-free judgment. For no matter how unbiased and even-handed his reason for judgment may seem, you’ll find that it almost always stems from the judge’s own personality and is often subconsciously tailored to fit his own sets of values and beliefs. Delve a little deeper and you’ll see that his upbringing, his parent’s values, his environment, and his social class moulded his overall philosophy. So when a fellow mammal dons a black cape and a white wig and assumes an artificial appearance, that doesn’t mean that he can suddenly subdue his nature to deliver perfect justice, or more incredibly, that his judgment should be worthy enough to be recorded and kept as a precedent.

Still, in the absence of political interference, if you manage to catch a good judge on a good day in a good mood, and your ethnicity, beliefs, appearance, social class or personality does not irritate him too much, then a just verdict is not impossible. So next time we show obeisance to his worship or his honour, let’s not forget that we’re also bowing our heads to an old system designed to prevent the lean many from dispossessing the bloated few.