After the passionate events of last Monday, it may be a timely moment to take a more dispassionate look at the legal system. It’s easy to forget that laws vary from one generation and one era to another, coloured by social attitudes of the time. What is regarded as serious also varies, while there’s a general assumption that current attitudes hold true for ever. For example, there was little legislation on an age of consent until less than two centuries ago.  In some countries, forced child marriage is still widespread, whatever the law. As a result there are well-meaning souls who would raise that age to 18, which somewhat ignores the reality on the ground – or anywhere else that unforced teenagers find suitable. However desirable, any age limit is inevitably arbitrary and application of the law needs flexibility.  

Solon observed that "Society is well governed when its people obey the magistrates, and the magistrates obey the law." Even in those days, magistrates could be erratic in their judgements. Later on, Greek philosophers were more concerned with abstract standards of justice and cared little for the law as it was. Aristotle considered that “The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.” 

That tension between the law and justice remains to this day and Dike (goddess of justice and fair judgements) seems to be of secondary importance. You might like to consider how much wisdom is applied to verdicts, partly as magistrates are overwhelmed with cases and have little time to think. You may have noticed that villains with devious lawyers, aided and abetted by others, find ways to delay or abort justice. Your predecessor would be the last to disagree. However, true justice is also based on whether a law is reasonable. When was the last time a magistrate dared to declare “The law is an ass”?  The phrase, incidentally, dates back to the 17th century although it became current thanks to Charles Dickens. His poor Mr Bumble, who had a domineering wife (who would presumably nowadays be arrested for abuse) is told by the court, “The law supposes that your wife acts under your direction." "If the law supposes that," said Mr. Bumble, squeezing his hat emphatically in both hands, "the law is a ass - a idiot". 

Matters are further complicated when laws have a religious basis. While religions and social groups can provide mortals with a moral compass, they have a tendency to try to enforce codes reflecting their views of society and in so doing retain control over people. To make their diktats more convincing, they often embellish them with divine authority, going so far as to invoke tablets of stone, a powerful image. Ironically, as governments are terrified of their power, when group members break the law they often remain immune from prosecution.  

The Chagos advisory opinion needs a little more quiet reflection, but the Medpoint affair retains murky elements. Despite the verdict, no-one so far is any the wiser as to how the clinic’s revaluation occurred, due to an outbreak of amnesia in the Chief Government Valuer’s office and the absence of a modern-day Ares to conduct his grilling. Nonetheless, thank Zeus the country can still resort to the Privy Council, despite nationalist sentiments that overlook the state of the legal profession and “independent” bodies here. After all, as the injudicious leak of its verdict has shown, one or more senior legal figures in the know can’t even honour an embargo. Some are even suggesting that the leak occurred in the hope that an intellectually-challenged politico would seize on it and celebrate prematurely… 

Yours sincerely
Epi Phron