Importance Of Justice In A Society Essay

, Research Paper

The Importance of Justice in Society

English: 250

Instructor: Dr. P.B. Middelton.

Author: Al-Hassar, Abdullah.

One component of the definition of justice is the final outcome of the process of the law, whereby justice is distributed by the State. According to this definition, justice is the mechanical process of the structure of law – set in place and agreed to by the people of the State. Another definition is concerned with the value inherent in ‘just’ behavior. One distinction between these two definitions is the difference between an individual viewpoint and the larger view of the society. Either view incorporates the concept of moral judgment; ‘good’ as opposed to ‘bad.’

Man has recognized the importance of justice in his society since the earliest of times. In order to serve justice, there has to be a law to settle differences among the people of the state. The history of law in relation to society reveals that humanity’s earliest efforts at lawmaking were prompted by the basic desire of self-preservation. Although engulfed by a society that necessitated such combinations as clans and tribes for protection, as well as for social and economic advancement, the nature of the individual led to the development of certain expressed general rights with regard to person and property1. Generally, these unwritten rules governing social and economic interaction recognized the right to defend oneself from injury as well as to enjoy property without outside interference. While sufficient for primitive societies, unwritten rules of social control were ineffective in a rapidly developing society. So, an effort was made to clarify them so that all the people would know their definitions, limits, and applications.

After reading Fuller’s Speluncean Explorers fictional case and seeing the conflict between the judges who made up Chief Justice Truepenny’s court, one would ask himself, are there fixed principles of justice that transcend time, place, and circumstances. Is justice absolute or relative. Given the extreme situation the perpetrators where in, are they innocent or guilty. I found Judge Keen was the only judge implementing the criminal justice system as it should be. The other judge’s involvement in the case was like this: Truepenny cannot handle it; Foster is saying since they were in a “state of nature” then they should be dismissed; Tatting is confused and too emotionally involved; and Handy wants the masses to react to the case and make a circus out of it. This fictional case shows the divergent views of judges who work under the same judicial system and have different philosophical approaches to capital punishment, which ,in this case, is death. The case truly represents the daily struggle in the American legal system which is really an adversarial system of law. To refer to a justice system as a system, there must be fixed principles of justice which all the officers of the law must follow. Without due process, the system of justice would lack fairness and would fail to represent society’s judgment as to an individual’s guilt or innocence.2

The morality of capital punishment causes heated debate whenever there is an execution. Many people believe that the death sentence discourages those who might commit horrible crimes. To these people, since life is precious, the death penalty helps to affirm this fact. Others believe a civilized society has no right to put another person to death, especially when there is a lack of strong evidence. For example, Gary Graham also known by his adapted African name (Shaka Sankofa) was killed despite the lack of physical evidence linking him to the crime scene. The whole case against Gary depended on the testimony of a single eyewitness. The question is, has justice been done or not. Most of the industrialized world has abolished the death sentence, because they consider it barbaric. Barbaric or not, the law of the land must be followed even if we do not like the death penalty. The officers of the law must always avoid errors of sentencing based on skin color, poverty, class, and political gain. If we create a society in which justice is not tolerated, and racism at play then more incidents of state killing will continue and the law of jungle will take place.

Poverty is the mother of all crimes in any society. One of the roots causing violence is poverty; where there is a high percentage of violent crime; there is also a high percentage of poverty, unemployment, lack of affordable health care, education, etc.

As economic conditions in a society deteriorate, it is not surprising to see individual involvement in crimes on the rise. Poor people tend to have higher crime rates, poorer work habits, weaker family organizations, and more substance abuse. Since poverty is unlikely to be self-correcting, the state has to be involved in correcting this problem. Unfortunately, in modern societies, the poor “specially the minorities of different color or class” are considered undesirable citizens, and the force of the law acting on behalf of society to protect the majority would try its best to put them in jail or kill them. For example, New York City was racked a year ago by a heinous crime involving the police department and a Guinean man. The white police officers fired 41 bullets (of which 19 found their mark) on the unarmed Guinean, Amadou Diallo. The pol