The criminal justice system is corrupt. I think the only way to fix it is to have a nation-wide reform of the legal process. We should adopt the inquisitorial system for a start, and do away with the commercialisation of lawyers, who should all be public servants. The system is slanted towards the accused, because just about everyone concerned with it is a trained defence lawyer. Common law wasn't originally designed to favour anyone, but over the centuries the defence lawyer has moulded it to suit themselves. Even the principle of innocent until proven guilty is suspect. Has anyone actually thought about this? Under the inquisitorial system, the accused is neither considered guilty nor innocent; the matter is unproven, and all evidence is admissable. Doesn't that make more sense? Because of the principle of innocence prior evidence of wrong-doing is withheld from the jury as it may "unfairly" prejudice them. Over the years defence lawyers (and this includes the judiciary, legislators etc) have chipped away at the process so as to most favour the accused. Male judges still reserve have the right to deny child witnesses the right to give evidence shielded from the accused. I don't know that our female judges are any better. The problem is more of a defence lawyer bias than gender bias, although gender bias plays its part too.

With expresions like the following it is easy to see justice1964 personal agenda, "The Capitalist elite utilitarian mode of governance has reigned supreme albeit under a different banner."

I fail to see how capitalism or socialism has anything to do with justice. I prefer to live in societies where free markets reign than in societies where the equalisation of income is enforced by the State. There is evidence of envy of the rich and the private schooled. She considers such as injustice.

In NSW we have women Judges and they are extremely biased in favour of criminals and extremely condemnatory of the law and those who uphold the law.

Philo: "In NSW we have women Judges and they are extremely biased in favour of criminals and extremely condemnatory of the law and those who uphold the law."

I don't suppose Philo would care to provide some verifiable examples to back up this extraordinary assertion?

Look at the judgments of Pat O'Shane and her summing up remarks.

One Case report:

Paul Makucha says while he welcomes Ms O'Shane's referral to the NSW Judicial Commission's conduct division, it had come "too late" and that he had still not received an apology for the incident.
Ms O'Shane, the first Aboriginal barrister in Australia and a former head of the NSW Aboriginal Affairs Department who in 1998 was named one of Australia's 100 National Living Treasures, now risks being removed from office after senior members of the NSW judiciary referred her to the disciplinary tribunal.

The state's top judges moved against Ms O'Shane, who was appointed a NSW magistrate in 1986, after she clashed with Mr Makucha in a civil case, jailed him for contempt, heard part of the case in his absence and then ruled for the other side.

Mr Makucha, 60, was strip-searched, photographed and imprisoned for a day after being cited for contempt in July 2004.

"They stripped me, made me lift my scrotum and bend over so they could examine my rectum and made me stand naked in a designated place," Mr Makucha told The Australian last night.

He had been imprisoned from 11am to 4pm and was then given 35 minutes to raise bail of $500 to avoid spending a weekend in jail.

In November last year, the NSW Court of Appeal overturned Ms O'Shane's judgment and found that she had denied Mr Makucha procedural fairness and had made "wholly unreasonable" interpretations of his intentions.

The court said Mr Makucha had behaved badly, "but it was hardly contempt in the face of the court".

"The magistrate's behaviour ... when the defendant was unrepresented was quite inappropriate," the Court of Appeal judges said. "The exercise by the magistrate of a little tact from the beginning of the defendant's conduct to which she took exception would have gone a long way."

Mr Makucha said the inquiry into Ms O'Shane's conduct was excellent news but it was far too late

The above article is from the AUSTRALIAN NEWS PAPER
Chris Merritt, Legal affairs editor | November 02, 200