Iustitia - The Symbolism of Justice
If you’ve visited the Supreme Court in the United Kingdom, chances are, you would have seen a female statue standing in front of the Supreme Court. She would probably seem odd to you, as she is holding a balancing scale and a sword in each of her hands; but the more striking oddity would be the fact that she is blindfolded. Why is she blindfolded, and who is she?
The female statue represents Iustitia, the Lady Justice. Her origins can be traced back to the Roman empire, where she is celebrated as a Goddess of Justice. It is therefore fitting for Supreme Courts all over the world to feature a statue of her in front of the respective Supreme Courts, not merely in the United Kingdom alone. We are not, however, interested in her origins or her story; but instead, we are more intrigued by her features, specifically the sword, the balancing scale, and the blindfold. How are you going to fight injustice with a blindfold on?!
Let us begin with the simplest feature of the statue, i.e.: the sword. To many, the sword is indicative of the role of the law to punish offenders, specifically criminals who break the criminal law. However, you would be wrong to think of the sword as merely a symbol of punishment. In the context of ancient kingdom and monarchy, the sword instead represented power and authority. This is important to the Supreme Courts, as the Supreme Court shall be capable of meting out judgments that can take away people’s liberties, and in some jurisdictions, the Supreme Court may even order for the death sentence to criminals committing heinous crimes!
- The symbol of power and authority is therefore an indispensable one, especially when you consider the fine line between committing murder and ordering for a death sentence. The outcome is essentially the same: the death of the subject; but the deciding factor for the legal and the illegal is, whether you have the power and authority to mete out the sentence or not!
Then, there is the balancing scale. What is she hoping to balance? We tend to think that justice is justice in itself, that there is only one just answer to all the problems. What is there to balance?
Criticize it all you want: but the fact remained that the courts and the judiciary as a whole are not always concerned with the idea of doing justice. Students of law have become all too familiar with the arguments of the law requiring certainty versus the law upholding justice. It is necessary for us to dwell in this issue further, as evidently, the society may not necessarily agree with the context of the law protecting certainty at the expense of justice. To many of the commoners like us, justice is thought to be us against the big corporations; and the courts must uphold justice to protect the little guys like us versus the big corporations with their army of lawyers and legal counsellors.
The law; and subsequently the judiciary; however, are not aligned this way. Imagine a world and a legal system without certainty. Let’s say today the law openly declared that stealing is a crime punishable by a fine of RM1,000.00. If the law tomorrow declares that stealing is NOT a crime and that the citizens are entitled to steal all their little hearts desire, the world shall descend into chaos! Do you now see the importance of certainty? Of course, the example illustrated in the previous sentences is too radical an example, but I would submit that radicality is the best means of getting the point across!
Back to the feature of the balancing scale held by the Lady Justice, do you now see that many of what the courts are doing on a day-to-day basis involves an exercise of balancing between two extremes? There’s always two sides to a court case, i.e.: the defendant (or defendants) versus the claimant (also known as the plaintiff). Both sides have their own take on the story of what actually happened, and the courts are supposed to balance the rights of both the defendant and the claimant. Note that the courts' role are not to assess who’s story is more believable, rather, it is on a not-so-trivial issue of burden and standard of proof. More on that story at a later time.
The last feature of the statue of the Lady Justice may not make immediate sense. To settle legal disputes between the parties, or in some cases, to erect justice and make right what is wrong, the courts definitely need to put the facts of the case under a microscope to ensure a tight scrutiny of the case can be had. Therefore to have the symbol of justice wearing a blindfold does not make sense, right?!
The reasoning behind the blindfold is actually far more sophisticated than that. The ideology behind the blindfold illustrates one of the most important principles in any legal system; that the Lady Justice, being blindfolded as she is, will remain as impartial as ever to anyone who knocked on her doors to put right what is wrong, to settle any disputes and to erect justice. This is something that any legal system must achieve: to not favor any party due to any reason other than because the law dictates that one party is right and the other is wrong. The law, and subsequently the judicial system, must not favor anyone by reason of their status, their wealth, their power or influence, or any other trivial reasonings. In theory, even the King and the royal family must be subjected to the same laws that govern every other citizens, and where the King violated any of these laws, His Highness may still be punished by the law!
If you have a keen eye, you would be able to spot the qualification I put in the previous sentence: “In theory …“. While the theory is nice and comforting, the King does enjoy certain immunities and privileges. He is the King after all.
So there you have it. The symbolism of Justice! Its moments like these that make me feel extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to study law. The beauty behind the principles and the emphasis of the law can be something to marvel upon in awe. Join me on a journey as we uncover many more faces of the law and the judicial system in an attempt to understand the law better!
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