Forced disclosures, document seizures, Right and Wrong.

[Black Unicorn]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Nomen Nescio" <nobody at dizum.com>
To: <cypherpunks at cyberpass.net>
Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 2001 2:30 AM
Subject: Re: Forced disclosures, document seizures, Right and Wrong.


> Black Unicorn wrote:
> > A legal education is the ultimate dose of practical cynicism.  It
> > quickly becomes apparent not that the law isn't perfect, but that it
> > is often pretty damn screwed up.  American jurisprudence is about
> > _fairness of process_, not justice, or right, or wrong.
>
> Come now, surely justice, right, and wrong are lurking in there
> somewhere?

Frustratingly, not in my experience.  Sure, the good guy (whoever you define
that to be) wins occasionally, but, as one supreme court justice put it, while
declining to free a clearly innocent convicted murderer because there was no
material error at trial: "The Constitution doesn't guarantee a correct
verdict, the Constitution guarantees due process."

> Perhaps I miss your point.  Is your statement intended as a
> condemnation of the U.S. legal system?  Which legal systems do you
> believe are about justice, right, and wrong?

Oh, really I'm just moaning out loud.  All such systems are imperfect by
definition.  The defining factor in the U.S. system is ex ante money.  The
victor usually spends the most up front.  (Though not always)  The defining
factor in Italy is political connections, the victor had the judge over a
barrel.  The defining factor in Mexico is ex post money (the loser buys his
way into an appeal or "escape.")

Choose your poison.