JUSTICE - OPINION PIECE
Legal justice does not always ensure moral justice
Integrity or Corruption – The Diverse Society
“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it”, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. People are always judging others in many ways before they even get to know the person, and this isn’t just on the street and throughout a community but it has also infested within the legal systems. Does legal justice actually ensure moral justice? These issues could have background reasons such as racism alongside being rich compared to being poor, society’s generalization and labels. Although laws vary from country to country meaning they control the law, more importantly these legal rules don’t always certify moral justice. These reasons could be as pity minded as racism and prejudice. As a result in many cases the legal system does not always guarantee moral justice.
The illusion of the legal system representing the moral justice of communities, no madder someone’s race or riches in society, is not always true. According to Roy Barnes ‘the law should be a shield for the weak and powerless, not a club for the powerful.’ Through this quote Barnes outlines that the court room is not always morally just, this is represented through the controversial debate of the rich versus the poor, but it is not just this factor effecting court cases. Other factors could include the reasons such as racism and prejudice. For example, the USA is now imprisoning about 1 out of every 36 people in its black population (www.globalresearch.ca). Not only does this highlight the issues in accordance to racism but it is found that many of these people are also on the poor side of society’s scale. People may think that everyone is convicted and trialled the same way in terms of legal justice, until they open their eyes. Not many people see that in accordance to the comparison in wealth and race people are indeed not served moral justice within legal justice.
Moreover, the issues of labelling people into groups, spread throughout society happens in everyday situations with the thoughts running through our judgemental minds. When we judge people before we really get to know them, we are already separating innocent people with the invisible walls which society provide. For example ‘a Muslim airline passenger says she faced “humiliation” and “discrimination” Friday when a flight attendant refused to give her an unopened can of Diet Coke, claiming that passengers could use unopened beverage cans as weapons.’ (www.theblaze.com) Although this is not directly seen as legal justice, this woman was still not allowed to have an unopened drink but in the airlines eyes they would have seen this as being a rule or in this case a law. In this situation generalisation and discrimination is present, if we open our eyes we will see that this woman did not receive the moral justice deserved. Some may think that this is no big deal it was just a drink she didn’t receive, but how would you feel if you were put in her position? Overall, even if the legal justice is just through an airline company, this can also mean that someone’s morals and values are not justified due to the categories and labels of our society today.
On the contrary, legal system is a broadly generalized phrase, which can differ between countries, to ensure each and every person is treated accordingly to the moral justice considered in that particular country. Laws are something that separates the world from being united as one that would have many moral justices not being met to, compared to living in our own separate countries with our own separate entitled moral integrities. For instance in the Bali nine case, the two men Andrew Chan and Myurna Sukumaran convicted to capital punishment were so vastly defended by Australia, the entire time throughout their trial, Australia stood up and argued for their case against capital punishment, but why, why should we have wasted money on that when there are far more important things to be done, than defending two drug smugglers? At the same level Indonesia has a right to enforce their own laws, after all they do have control of their own country. Even though the legal justice in Indonesia is different to Australia, this does not mean that moral justice is not being given in the eyes of society.
However the laws from a different country will not always encounter for those a part of a different country or culture. When Andrew Chan and Myurna Sukumaran were sentenced to the death penalty, people have to open their eyes to the fact that, yes they did the wrong thing but should they have to pay for it with their lives? These men didn’t take any lives, yes they were making a mistake by smuggling drugs but we have got to remember they didn’t kill anyone, after all two wrongs don’t make a right. People may argue with the fact that Indonesia have a ‘right’ to ensure their own laws, this doesn’t mean that it is ethically just, it doesn’t mean that we should support these laws. For instance Australia has laws that people don’t agree with and people are always fighting and arguing against them. But when Australia tries to defend two of their own it is seen as a waste of time, when really we were just trying to fight for a fair and morally just trial. When in another country we have to acknowledge that they have their own laws, although more importantly we need to see that when these laws are acted upon this does not mean that someone is going to receive the moral that we believe or value.
Furthermore legal justice is something we hear of daily, we also hear about prejudice and discrimination, but do we ever hear of racism corrupting legal justice? The answer in no, we never hear of this due to the falsified society we live in. In some cases pre-judging can be indicated, for instance in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Tom Robinson’s case could already be predicted. ‘Atticus had used every tool available to free men to save Tom Robinson, but in the secret courts of men's hearts Atticus had no case. Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed.’ People were more inclined to believe the lies from a Caucasian compared to the truth from a Negro, from this insane fact Tom Robinson had to pay the ultimate price, his life. Through this novel it is outlined that legal justice that is supposed to deliver moral justice, does not always happen, instead the legal system became infested with pre-judged opinions therefore effecting the overall outcome of someone’s trial.
In conclusion the legal system may have behind the scene reason for convicting someone in a certain case, such as the rich versus the poor which links in with racism, and the issue of society’s labels and general judgments. Although the term legal justice varies between countries this does not always ensure moral standards are present. Or reasons could even be the corruption of discrimination and prejudice within the legal system. When people are stuck in deception that the law always ensures moral justice, we have got to remind them that this isn’t always the case, because now we know that legal justice do not always certify moral justice.