From a reader’s letter “Aren’t judges supposed to be wise if we understand wisdom as education tested by life experience? The law is a codification of the universally abstract and cannot encapsulate every possible detail of concrete events, the million possibilities of the particular individual. That is why the wisdom of judges steps in, or should step in. What is to happen if the judges are not wise?”

I too would like to live in a world where wise judges bring justice. But we don’t live in a fairy tale. The job of a judge is not to find justice. The judge’s job is to recognize who is most powerful at the moment and rule in their favor. It’s about doing it in a sophisticated way and in a completely predictable way. So that everyone knows where they stand and what to expect. That’s much better than the powerful taking what they want directly and alone.

We have seen this well in the US and elsewhere in recent years, where the same judges hand down completely different sentences within a few years, depending on how the balance of power changes.

Why can’t it be otherwise? Because if judges were to hand down sentences according to morality, justice and the exact wording of the law, who would enforce those decisions? Who would force the really powerful to comply? That would make the enforcer of judgments even more powerful. Then again, it would be impossible to pass judgment against the enforcer of judgments. In short, power is fundamentally more than the law. And it always will be.

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