James Finn
Mar 15, 2024

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We might add, "How can justice be achieved through a system that is intentionally adversarial?"

In the English-speaking world, most of just presume a legal system based on a State prosecution and a criminal defense that are adversaries only loosely refereed by a neutral magistrate.

But actually, our system, which grew out of English common law, is not the only way to do things. In much of the french-speaking world, for example, prosecutors and magistrates are often the same person at the same time. Trial judges are not neutral referees; they're active participants in criminal cases, charged with enforcing the law with an eye toward achieving justice.

How this works out on the ground with sexual abuse cases, I don't know. But it's probably worth looking into.

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James Finn
James Finn

Written by James Finn

James Finn is an LGBTQ columnist, a former Air Force intelligence analyst, an alumnus of Act Up NY, and an agented but unpublished novelist.

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