|
|
|
| Authored by: Wol on Friday, February 08 2013 @ 02:45 PM EST |
Punitive Justice is Roman Justice.
The Western Justice system is built on Roman notions of Justice. Probably one of
the best places to look for Jewish ideas is in the book of Judges (of course).
But Jewish law was built in the absence of a concept of The State. Before King
Saul, the country was governed by Judges. Of course, there were plenty of
corrupt judges, but the idea was to protect the weak.
And one only has to look at the penalty for, eg, theft. The thief had to return
the stolen property, plus the same again as compensation. If the original was no
longer available, he had to return double in its place, plus double again for
compensation. The emphasis always is on making the victim whole.
I've actually been thinking about what's wrong with the whole US governance
system, and how we could help the third world get out of its political mess, and
I think maybe we should completely rewrite the ideas behind government. Get rid
of an executive president! Our monarchy works reasonably well, and while a lot
of people think the Queen is an anachronism, she has a very important role which
is to hold the government in check. I'm not at all happy about the damage done
to the House Of Lords, because I believe they serve a role a bit like that of
the US Supreme Court.
Anyways, my ideas for a good government ... We have three branches. The
legislature, led by a Prime Minister or similar. A reviser, like the House of
Lords or SCOTUS, whose purpose is to go over the legislation and make sure it's
good law. And the Judiciary, who make the Common Law and are tasked with
ensuring Justice, not Procedure. Okay, that places a tension between them and
the legislature, but that actually seems to work very well both in Britain, and
the EU ... :-)
The President, or Queen, or whatever, has primarily a titular role with little
real power other than to arbitrate between the Judiciary and Legislature.
But it should NOT be possible to cross between branches of government. I know
I'm almost describing our system of Government :-) but it seems that separating
law making from law enforcement, and then having a figurehead on top, is a lot
better than the American system of three parties in conflict, and by having the
top post be a figurehead it helps prevent "President for Life"
syndrome ...
Cheers,
Wol
[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
|
|
|
|
|
