Worzels World - Justice Undone

---

‘It's not fair’ is a complaint that is usually justified. It is a cry that spans the generations. It provides additional proof of man’s fall from the heavenly estate where righteousness and justice reign. It begs the question: How is it that from the earliest age there exists within the human soul a sense of fairness? Is this part of the divine nature inherent in our flawed humanity?

Originally the rule of law – as distinct from the rule of Kings, or the rule of tyranny – was adopted because a mechanism was required to protect the weaker, less powerful members of society from oppression and injustice. As it evolved, the rule of law became a process for redressing harm done or damage caused.

Sadly the rule of law, which at one time afforded protection to the weak from those with power, now assists those with power to oppress the weak. Where once law gave recourse to redress for harm done, it is now too often the cause of harm. This perversion of the principles of law upon which modern civilisation has been founded is neither acceptable nor sustainable.

Much law as created and applied today has very little to do with justice, natural or otherwise. State agencies prescriptively tell us what to do and how to do it without doing it themselves. Police annually issue millions of dollars of fines to people for transgressing arbitrary laws though have caused no harm. In these situations the only party harmed is the alleged transgressor who must cough up hard earned revenue destined for the state consolidated fund. Is this what people join the police to do? Meanwhile actual crime, which does cause harm to people or property, is largely ignored. Northland boasts a shameful burglary clearance rate of 3 per cent per annum.

Government agencies originally created to serve the public now do not hesitate to prosecute hard working productive kiwis who transgress their guidelines. This is regardless of results. Yet if you pay their dues, dot their i’s, cross their t’s, do it all their way and it fails (as it almost invariably does), those who made the decisions and imposed their often faulty designs upon us at our expense will take no responsibility for the outcome. They will not refund your money. They will not apologise for their faulty systems. They will not hurt, they will not bleed and they very seldom feel. Instead they will continue to extort wealth from a subject population that they have harmed on the continuing false premise that they are providing a service, keeping people safe, or performing some other function that they will say is for the greater good of society but which is demonstrably not. This is the reality of the perversion of the principles of natural law and common sense in this country and in many others around the world.
In regards the David Bain compensation case, then Minister of Justice, Judith Collins, went shopping for a legal opinion and simply kept spending tax money buying different opinions until she found one she liked. Our courts are effectively no longer impartial and certainly not just. There has been no redress for any of the numerous illegalities perpetrated at the expense of ratepayers to the Kaipara District Council. These illustrate only too well that government is more than willing to interfere with the judicial process.

Justice and being just is seldom the most convenient option and it is never easy. It requires effort, ethics and scruples. This is impossible for those with an agenda. The ability to discern what is just must be aspired to and learnt. If an adjudicator has any personal interest in an outcome be it promotion, profit, praise or preference, the possibility of administering justice is null and void. Justice requires an objective, unbiased viewpoint from which to assess all available evidence combined with the intelligence to come to a reasonable conclusion. There must also be a degree of wisdom and insight that sees beyond the superficial. Yet this is obviously absent from our justice system in the current so called 'post truth era'.
Law, once the handmaid of justice, like so many of those it was meant to serve, has now become the prostitute slave of greed and worldly power. The ideal of doing what is just has been sacrificed at the alter of pragmatism. Justice is no longer done, it is undone. Why is it that so many not only tolerate this but even welcome and embrace it?
It’s just not fair

 Feedback? Email prof_worzel@hotmail.com

Much law as created and applied today has very little to do with justice, natural or otherwise.

---