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| India-Pakistan |
| Is legal reform possible? |
| 2016-04-24 |
| [DAWN] AT various stages of Pakistain’s history, something or the other (perhaps an institution) has been identified as the solution to all Pakistain’s chief ills. Over the last couple of years, a new candidate has emerged. This new narrative is as follows: if there was rule of law, implementation of the Constitution and speedy justice administered by the courts, then terrorism, corruption and various forms of societal injustice would be drastically reduced. In short, the new superman in town is the ’law and courts’. Hence, the constant talk about legal and judicial reforms. With the above emerging narrative of the new legal superman and in the background of the continuing guilt of parliament for having allowed the establishment of military courts (ie impliedly accepting the failure of the civilian justice system), the Senate in Islamabad has, in recent history, undertaken the biggest attempt to reform the Pak legal system by converting the entire membership of the Senate to the Committee of the Whole. The result is a report of the committee titled Provisions of Inexpensive and Speedy Justice in the Country. The Senate report is commendable in many respects. Firstly, it has identified the key problem of the legal justice system ie expensive and delayed justice. The absence of inexpensive justice leads to access to justice being denied to the majority of Pak citizens, while excessively delayed justice is actually injustice to the victims. Secondly, there is the realisation that no legal reform is possible without simultaneously reforming the laws, government justice bureaucracy (police reforms, prosecution system etc.), and the judiciary and without the provision of free legal aid for the poor, weak and powerless. We share the same problem with Pakistain. A big part of it is the proliferation of lawyers who need at least $200 an hour to make a phone call. When I was growing up we had people who were known as "justices of the peace." They could marry people and most traffic stops ended up with them rather than with having to go to court. You paid your fine and if there was a record kept it wasn't a serious record. If they were brought back I'll betcha they could handle virtually all misdemeanor judgments, without waiting for a court date four or five months down the road. The $200 an hour lawyers could go on salary and learn to scale back their appetites a little. The expense to the state of maintaining them would be offset by the fines collected. The courts could be reserved for actual felonies, and the definitions of same could be refined. But nobody listens to me. I'm just an old crank. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Texas has Justice of the Peace for this very purpose as part of the judiciary system. Constables too. |
| Posted by: Ulereter Ulose6097 2016-04-24 10:16 |
| #1 Pakistan was actually a Nation that had a chance after the Brits left. It was modern enough to handle true law. But then Islam shit and it turned into the turnbuckle of satans army. I do not know what to do with them. So, I shall look on in horror as idiot liberals and idiot islamists beat them up until it spills over like the dead carcus of the lost Mongol Empire - with entrails spoiling food in every surrounding country and ruining the taste around the world. |
| Posted by: newc 2016-04-24 03:56 |