Define Justice
What is Justice? It’s a question that philosophers have attempted to answer for ages, and which eludes those who work in our court system seeking Justice. Justice is fairness. Justice is Mercy, generosity, equality, compassion, kindness. Justice is retribution, punishment, revenge, and restoration. Justice is dictated by what serves the needs of a society. Justice is dictated by what serves the needs of each individual. Justice is when a person gets what they deserve. Justice is harmony and balance – righting what is wrong or at least evening the scales when they have tipped too far to one side or the other.
Justice is a lie. Trickery, a concept pushed upon us by those in power to justify the things that they must do to us in order to keep their power over us.
Justice is Truth. In the courtroom, Justice is achieved by an independent investigation of facts conducted by a judge and/or a jury, and presented for their review by advocates on each side of a dispute.
Justice for an institution, such as our court system, is determined by the standards of our day, by a fluid agreement made by leaders and representatives of a society as to what Justice should be, what is right, what is wrong, what is permitted and what is not, what the punishment for violations of the social norms should be, when reparations should be made and how.
There is Justice on each side of a dispute. In the courtroom, Justice is different for each person present. It is the advocate’s job to find what Justice is for his or her client, to show it to the jury, to be sure that the jury understands the client’s story and what Justice means for that one person in the room, and to empower the jury to give it to them when no one else would or could.
