Just a short follow-up to that last post. I arrived for day 2 of Jury Duty at 10am, and essentially did nothing for the rest of the day, only to be fully discharged by 3:30pm, after a two hour lunch break. I was happy to do my duty, in principle, but it still makes me a bit sad that having an overly-developed sense of the objective, and thus a high standard for evidence, makes me a liability to the legal system as it is. So I guess the scales of justice aren't for me, despite the obvious point that they borrow their defining trope from the scientific method. Clearly, the whole concept of showing the scales of justice is to indicate an objective "measuring" the guilt of the defendant by recourse to brute facts. Go figure: maybe that's why lady justice is portrayed as blind?
1 comment:
Living here in Britain it is my understanding that the criminal courts, are all to do with weight of evidence where the civil courts are balance of probability, it's a shame we don't have juries in civil courts and scientists would be the best placed to balance the probablities. Maybe custody cases could be better played in front of a jury of scientists and the chioldren's best interests preserved.
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