When violence is used to adjudicate the law, the law has become the one served and we the ones who serve it. In this regard, then, social benefits of law become something to be earned rather than a valued right. I submit, however, that what is actually served is vengeance and not the law after all. What we end up with is a commodity-based process of law enforcement whereby everyone gets what they deserve rather than what they need, and the original vision behind law is lost.
Others often challenge me when I say that much of our world’s violent conflict occurs around the boundaries of law and regulations. Croatian Christian theologian Miroslav Volf wrote: Law and regulations do limit abuses; however, they only mark the space in which war [violence] is waged. They do not eliminate war [violence]. Neither he in his book nor I in this writing deny the importance of law and regulations. These are very important boundary markers for the needed security of any ordered society. However, when we execute the law based on an arbitrary commodity-based / market concept, miss-justice is served. Indeed, our history continues to reveal the ways that law can be bought and sold – loopholes, plea bargaining…
I have come to observe that this distinct form of justice (retributive) is set up to ensure everyone gets what they deserve, and the more one can pay it seems the more one gets. Even so, I am aware of a second form of justice that remains but a vision even if I have seen it manifest only in fleeting moments of grace – that being a form of justice where everyone gets what they need. This later form of justice is a vision for healthy and growing communities seeking to continually repair the fractures in community (restorative) even though the other form of justice continues to prevail.
I know I am playing somewhat with the language. Please understand, I do believe that those who violate the law need to be held accountable. It is the form of accountability that I question. For example, take the language of justice and apply it to the themes we see developed in our literature and movies. One that comes to mind is the recent remake of the movie King Arthur. Here is a story that demonstrates the trumping of justice when Arthur ruthlessly defeats his enemies in horrible violent battle, as if the violence was the only way to restore justice when in actuality, all of creation gasps with fatal “sucking chest” wounds – I name this form of justice retributive justice or, restorative violence as if violence can ever restore anything, when the true nature of violence is to tear down and take life away, never to restore it.
When justice becomes something that can be bought and sold then it is always those who cannot afford it that lose. In other words, justice stops being a gift given to the community for its security and survival. It is instead something to be earned through certain behaviors and / or cash investments. It becomes a utilitarian form of ethic resulting in the sacrifice of justice for some immediate greater good.
Consider the Biblical law Thou Shall Not Kill. This law is given to community to ensure its safety and security. Our streets become safe havens of joy where people can walk and not fear for their lives. However, place this in context with the last Biblical law Thou Shall Not Covet, given to protect one from the other over the matter of property. The imperative then is that all in community receive according to their need so that they are not tempted to covet and hence kill to obtain what they need to survive. This process of law enforcement reaches for the higher ground of justice and preserves the sanctity of community.
Posted by John Fair 