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A essay on law enforcement history in the united states
Injustice in the justice system
Justice legal system
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The Importance of Justice in Society
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...
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...een the poor and rich, the weak and the strong. To fight poverty the state should spend more money on education, employment, and child welfare. The state must give the individual his rightful place of dignity as a free man equal to all his fellow men where he shall have the right to live under a rule of law based on a sense of obligation. In that society, respect for law must be the cohesive force holding it together and not mere obedience based on surrender to the weapons of state power.
Bibliography:
Fuller, Lon L. The Law as Literature. Wofford Press, Toronto. 1978.
Swift, Jonatham. The Complete Works. Oxford Univesity Press, New York, 1987.
Smith, Alexander B. Crime and Justice in a Mass Society. Xerox College Publication,
Massachusetts, 1972.
Waldron, Ronald J. The Criminal Justice System: an introduction. Houghton Mifflin,
Boston, 1976.
...are confronted with the question of moral absolutes, we are forced to wonder when and to whom justice truly applies. Hopefully, we will look at our world and our ideas of right, wrong and retribution in different ways, ways that will enlighten and enrich our lives, and the those of the an audience of readers 2,000 years from now.
“ ….Judgments, right or wrong. This concern with concepts such as finality, jurisdiction, and the balance of powers may sound technical, lawyerly, and highly abstract. But so is the criminal justice system….Law must provide simple answers: innocence or guilt, freedom or imprisonment, life or death.” (Baude, 21).
Justice is defined in many different ways, one referring to a form of judgment that provides order in a situation. Justice offers a fair punishment that fits the offense. The term holds a positive connotation, in contrast to the word injustice.
Encyclopedia Britannica Defines Justice as the concept of a proper proportion between a person’s deserts (what is merited) and the good and bad things that befall or are allotted to him or her. There is a duality to the idea of justice because it acts as a reward and a deterrent. It makes sure the people who abide by rules get treated “justly” but also insures an example out of the people who break laws so that the amount of law-breakers dissipates. Judgment’s importance stems from its dual-concept base. Britannica defines it in terms of law and thought. Judgment in all legal systems is a decision of a court adjudicating the rights of the parties to a legal action before it. The Encyclopedia explains judgment in thought using multiple components:
The governance of our present day public and social order co-exist within the present day individual. Attempts to recognize the essentiality of equality in hopes of achieving an imaginable notion of structure and order, has led evidence based practitioners such as Herbert Packer to approach crime and the criminal justice system through due process and crime control. A system where packer believed in which ones rights are not to be infringed defrauded or abused was to be considered to be the ideal for procedural fairness. “I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.” Thomas Jefferson pg 9 cjt To convict an individual because proper consideration was not taken will stir up social unrest rather then it’s initial intent, when he or she who has committed the crime is not punished for their doings can cause for a repetition and even collaboration with other’s for a similar or greater crime.
How do we define justice? The dictionary defines it with words like righteousness and fairness. Often times when we hear the word justice, or hear about an unjust situation, we have an instinctual reaction. We all know what justice is, even without a dictionary definition. Justice is a virtue, justice is doing the right thing. But how can we define justice if it is doing what we individually think is the right thing to do?
This theory looks at how the sovereign and its officials created the law based on social norms and the institutions (Hart, 1958). However, hard cases such as this makes for bad law, which test the validity of the law at hand based on what the objective of the law was in the first place. The law should not be so easily dismissed just because it does not achieve justice in the most morally sound manner (Hart, 1958). Bentham and Austin understood that there are two errors in the way law is understood, what the law is and what the law should be (Hart, 1958). He knew that if law was to become what humans perceived the law ought to be, the law itself would be lost, but he also recognized that if the opposite was to occur where the law replaced morality, than any man would escape liability and there would be no retribution (Hart, 1958). This theory looks at the point of view of the dissenting judge, Justice Gray, which is that the law is what it is, even if it may conflict with morals. Austin stated that “The existence of law is one thing; its merit and demerit another. Whether it be or be not is one enquiry; whether it be or be not conformable to an assumed standard, is a different enquiry (Hart, 1958).” This case presents the same conflict that Bentham and Austin addressed, that the law based on the statute of the
Morality ivolves distinguishing which human behaviors are right or wrong and good or bad. Morality covers topics such as harm, rights and justice, and therefore it is mainly concerned with protecting every idividual. There has been a culture of war between liberals and conservatives all based upon human morality aspects (Haidt & Graham, 2007, p. 1). Cultural war can be termed as the division in personal opinions and thoughts between open-minded people or liberals and the conventional or traditionalists, also known as conservatives.
How do we receive justice in the U.S ? First what is Justice, is it “fairness or moral rightness. a scheme or system of law in which every person receives his/ her/its due from the system, including all rights, both natural and legal”(dictionary.com). But do we the people really get a fair trial? Do the people who work for the system and took an oath really care about moral rightness? “One problem is that attorneys, judges and legislators often get caught up more in procedure than in achieving justice for all”(dictionary.com). The justice system has consistently failed underprivileged/poor defendants. In the movie Twelve Angry Men there was a young boy put on trial and accused of murdering his father, his fate was death if pronounced
The ideal society we would all be considered equal, but reality often defies this idealism. When we think of police officers, we think of people working hard to keep us all safe, but this may not always be the case in today 's society. This is demonstrated in an opinion piece published in the Miami Herald, entitled “Need a ‘big, bad dude’? White criminals need not apply” by Leonard Pitts Jr. The article opens by discussing the shooting of African-American man Terence Crutcher, where the police officer who shot him stated it was due to him not obeying her orders and reaching inside his SUV for a weapon. However, the video of the shooting shows that this did not happen. The article also goes on to discuss other African-Americans shot in recent
Justice plays a valuable part in the public’s life; no matter who you are or where you are from. In Michael Sandel’s Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? the reader encounters six specific approaches to lawfulness and ethical morality, which constitute of utilitarianism, libertarianism, Locke, Kant, Rawls, and Aristotle. Each of these definitive philosophies falls under one of three general concepts and categories. These consist of freedom, virtue, and welfare. Exclusively judging the title of the book, one may think that it attempts to solve or bring forth ethical and moral issues of our time. After reading the book however, the reader becomes aware that Sandel’s work is much
Justice is the basis upon which the laws of a society are built. To examine a particular society in depth, it is imperative to appreciate their understanding of justice. There are certain limitations to understanding past societies. The best and most accurate way to surpass these limitations is by examining a society’s law. The law shows who and what were most important to these ancient people. Barbarian societies created a customary law, which ensured safety and governed the actions of the clan members.
Durkheim sees the role of law and punishment to be important for the solidarity of society as a whole. (Ibid., p81) Here, society has a...
Law is the foundation of central structures of social life on which society’s integrity depends, which is why Petrazycki, Ehrlich and Habermas perceive it to be a key steering mechanism in society,
Justice is an important aspect of the United States and it should always prevail. It is important for justice to be blind because it hurts the reputation of the criminal court of law in the United States if it isn't. Justice has three important elements. It needs to be credible, fair, and balanced. These three elements help make justice the best sense of law in the United States, for all of its citizens.