Justice And Law

Hello everyone. This blog post is about justice and law, as I have come across it during my LA lesson on The Merchant Of Venice. So, what is justice anyway? There are two sides to justice, fairness and the laws in a country that punishes people. From this, it is quite obvious that is not only about law, but about being impartial in dealing with a matter, getting the facts right and making the right judgment.

Yes, law can be used to instill justice by punishing people who do wrong. But sometimes, the law can be too harsh for people who commit minor errors or mistakes which do no deserve the punishment meted out by the laws of the country. therefore, justice must have both fairness and mercy for proper judgment to be made and the right punishments to be meted out.

In the modern world, there are some controversies over how law is perceived. For example, in Singapore, the issue of caning as punishment for vandalism has been much talked about all over the world, and Singapore's system of corporal punishments is being questioned. In fact, caning itself is being condemned by many nations around the world, as those countries think that the extreme pain from the corporal punishments is condemned under human rights of the United Nations. Like the Michael Fay and Oliver Fricker incidents, both of them have been sentenced to caning for vandalism for cars and MRT trains respectively. Many people from countries outside Singapore disapprove of caning as it is not appropriate for a non-violent crime which has not caused any physical or mental damage to any other person. Although no other party got injured in the process of vandalism, the eventual outcome led to the perpetrators of crime being subjected to emotional and physical scars in the mind and body. Because of this, many people disapprove of caning as a punishment for vandalism.

Hence, to conclude, I think that justice should be practiced with both fairness and mercy in order to punish the criminals appropriately and not create a controversy over the matter. That's all. Bye

Posted on Term 3 Week 5