,it feels to me that the only thing these appellate courts have been concerned with is PROCESS
important though that may be
our judicial system should be about ultimately be about JUSTICE
Good point. But what is important to understand is that, for the government, justice IS process. That's why they talk about "due process." If you think about it enough, you realize that, while imperfect, that's the only way it can be.
Let me give you an example from my experience, a simple scenario. Consider a performance management system in the workplace. You can ask any employee what justice means in that context and he would tell you that it's him getting an outstanding rating and a big bonus and his nemesis get his comeuppance. Obviously, in that scenario, everyone can't get what he considers justice. So fairness comes to be defined as setting up a process with standards, rules, and an appeal mechanism and insuring that the process is followed meticulously. I, personally, found that hard to get my head around because apparent errors occur, but I can't come up with an alternative. We sure don't want everything to be done arbitrarily and ad hoc. That might result in better justice in isolated cases, but it does not optimize justice overall, plus it would result in lots of big time injustice. This way at least everyone knows the rules and that they will be applied consistently. That's as close as societies can get to perfect justice. |
