The seventh of the Seven Noahide Laws is: Ensure justice in society
We want to live in a world where we can ensure justice in our society. It’s a very powerful and emotional drive. The question will become on how to do it to ensure that we are actually improving this world. As usual, each and every case should be examined on its own merits, however we want to start outlining some of the definitions and understandings.
Justice requires a clear structure consisting of hearing the case, examining all of the available evidence (admissible or not), judges to uphold the rule of the law, a verdict and possible appeal of the sentence. If the jury is involved, we ask them a number of questions to ensure that they are impartial. Plus, there is a huge advantage to people able to afford a good defence team. This is a very hard and practically impossible task as we all go through our lives having strong views on one matter or another, as well as prejudice to certain types of crime.
In that stage, jail is often introduced to what we call the justice system. The idea of people going to jail is a complicated one. We often hear that people are getting radicalised in jails, there is a lot of violence and statistics are blurry on the number of people rehabilitated in it. We can call it a correctional facility, but there is not much correction that is happening.
Remembering that every crime has a victim, we have to be careful to address the victims’ welfare before we can think about the perpetrators. Additionally, we have to be clear on our ability and the extent of support we can provide to victims. After all, we need to strive to have everyone go back to being a productive and fully functioning member of society. This would be the ideal outcome.
This outlines a few obvious missing points in the current system. Firstly, it’s obvious we need to have a system where the same laws are applied equally, regardless of financial status. It seems to be basic, but it’s much harder to achieve as courts are often on a limited budget and resources. They will try, but the practical side of it is hard. Furthermore, we need to ensure that our judges are of good character and come from wealthy backgrounds (which will help us to minimise bribery options). Remember that bribes can come in more than just monetary form, however illuminating the monetary side is a huge step in the right direction.
Second, we need transparency of the system, which should help us to identify patterns and possible attitudes. For example, we do not want anyone receiving different verdicts based on their skin colour, sex, religion, political views and so on. It’s either justice or favouritism.
Third, we have to question the need and structure of jails. It is clear that going to jail for minor crimes is far from ideal. For example, if someone gets caught picking a pocket or trying to steal from the shop, going to jail (even if it happens) provides very little to the victim. We need to ensure that the victim is not worse off financially at the end of the day. Even in the field of the larger scale financial crime, our target should be to ensure that victims are compensated within the limits of signed contracts. By taking away the freedom of perpetrators, we are unable to teach them responsibility and failing to provide justice for victims.
In the system of transparency and accountability, the idea of an eye for an eye is critical. Contrary to the current system, it teaches us that the punishment should be reflective of the crime. In certain extreme situations, capital punishment is entering the discussion, however it has to be looked at as a part of the system as a whole (including but not limited to the concept of cities of refuge). Just so we are clear, it was known that the court sentencing one person in 70 years to receive the capital punishment is considered to be cruel. This point is critical.
Now we see that setting up the courts of justice is a cornerstone of peaceful coexistence in our world. We will discuss it further; however, for now, transparency and accountability of the current system are good steps towards our common goal.