Rick Lowe

We often hear people – including the political class – and mostly lawyers at that – ridiculing the Judiciary, and informing us how if they were elected Prime Minister they would fix it post haste.

The most recent "debate" is how the current administration has failed on the issue of crime and there are far too many known criminals and murderers out on bail.

If my failing memory serves me correctly, about two years ago now, Parliament passed a Bill, unanimously I might add, that anyone charged with murder could not be granted bail.

Now if someone is charged with a crime and sits in jail for five years  without the case against them proceeding, they should be released. If we can't process a matter within five years it points to us, the ineffectiveness of the workers in the system, not necessarily a bad law.

That said, would be satisfied with the arbitrariness of the political class being allowed to dictate the outcome of cases? My short answer is, no. A little bit longer answer is, we no longer live under a Monarchy where the King or Queen dictates their personal form of justice.

Is it perfect? Of course not. But I do think it beats mob rule.

But I digress, Cato Unbound has done it again with an excellent discussion on What Is Due Process during February 2012.

The Lead Essay is by Timothy Sandefur and is entitled Why Substantive Due Process Makes Sense. Read it here…

Hope you enjoy it.