scholarly journals Law and Order, the Rule of Law, and the Legitimation of the Colonial Presence in Late British Burma

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Ian Brown

Abstract In Britain's empire across Asia and Africa from the mid-nineteenth century, two political-legal principles were central to colonial modernity, law and order, and the rule of law. These two principles secured the legitimation of colonial rule, in the eyes of those who ruled. It is striking then to see that in late colonial Burma, in the 1920s and 1930s, the colonial government struggled to maintain law and order and to embed the rule of law. Violent crime soared while the criminal justice system failed hopelessly for serious offences. This article seeks to explore the ways in which senior British officials in Burma navigated the disjuncture between the imperial principles that were central to colonial justification and Burma's reality. Perhaps most notably, they did so by putting blame for the soaring crime rates and the failures of the criminal justice system firmly on the Burmese. In the early 1940s, however, with the end of colonial rule clearly imminent, the legitimation of the colonial presence became of less pressing importance, and the failure of colonial practice to live up to its ideological rhetoric could now be more openly faced.

Author(s):  
Oyewunmi Olabode ◽  
Igbinoba Ebeguki ◽  
Olusola -Olujobi

Breach of fundamental human rights and rule of law are challenges that have tainted Nigeria’s image and impaired sustainable development of her justice system. These breaches are: torture, distorting bail procedures among others. These illegal practices if unchecked may culminate in the denial of justice. The lawyer’s role therefore, is vital in fostering a culture of enduring dispensation of justice, especially in the light of the many challenges bedeviling Nigeria’s criminal justice system. The paper re-appraises the statutory and ethical roles of lawyers pursuant to the Nigeria’s Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 in facilitating stringent compliance with the Act to safeguard the rule of law. The study is a doctrinal legal research with a library based approach. It adopts primary sources such as statutes, judicial authorities and secondary sources such as textbooks, journals/articles and internet sources. The research recommends among others, reform and strengthening of the judiciary to promote its independence in the administration of criminal justice system. Lawyers must ensure that the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 fosters dexterous management of cases by all adjudicatory bodies for speedy dispensation of justice, promotion of rule of law, and to end abuse of court processes. The study finds that Nigerian criminal law appears flawed in this regards. This research revealed series of human rights violations in Nigeria and equally highlighted the roles of lawyers in combating these abuses and suggest the use of modern forensic technologies in all courts in Nigeria which is currently lacking and made some recommendations.


Author(s):  
Vicente Riccio

The presence of crime in the visual media is a phenomenon shared throughout the world. In Brazil there is also a great level of consumption of it. The Brazilian production of media about crimes is deeply rooted in the social context that has emerged from intense social, political, and economic transformations that have taken place in the country since the second half of the 20th century. The depiction of crime in Brazilian visual media is based on three different genres: (1) television series, (2) films, and (3) police journalism. They deal with critical issues about the rule of law in Brazilian society such as violence, inequality, police corruption, failures of the criminal justice system, and the demands for public policies to improve it. Despite this common ground, the genres reveal different political and ideological views about the rule of law in Brazil. Productions centered on the plane of fiction (television and film) are more critical about the criminal justice system in Brazil, especially in relation to the performance of its police forces. Brazilian police journalism is the opposite. The style reinforces a view of the problem of crime founded from the viewpoint of problematic people rather than problematic structures. Finally, the media coverage of crime is an important field to help understand the different views in the public agenda about the criminal justice system’s reform in Brazil.


1994 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 502-523 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Gardner

The Offences Against the Person Act 1861 is much disparaged by today's criminal lawyers. Its provisions have been described as “impenetrable” by the Court of Appeal. The House of Lords could not conceal its dissatisfaction with what is called “the irrational result of this piecemeal legislation”. Andrew Ashworth has written of the “antiquated and illogical structure” of an Act which the Law Commission regards as “unsatisfactory in very many respects”. Most recently Brooke J., launching the latest version of the Commission's reform package, lambasted the operation of the 1861 Act as “a disgrace”, and claimed that this hostile view is shared in every corner of the criminal justice system.


Jurnal Hukum ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 1737
Author(s):  
Ira Alia Maerani

Abstract                Indonesian Criminal Justice System consists of the police, public prosecutor and the courts. The role of the police investigators is certainly vital as the frontline in building public confidence in the rule of law in Indonesia. The role of the investigator is quite important in realizing society’s  justice. The era of globalization requires a pattern fast-paced, instant, measurable, and transparent of life and it requires investigators to follow the times by optimizing the use of technology. The aim of this study is to give effect to the rule of law in Indonesia that provides fairness, expediency and certainty. However, it considers to have priority of Pancasila values in the process of inquiry and investigation. The values of supreme divinity, God (religious), humanity, unity, democracy and justice are values that establish a balance (harmony) in enforcing the law. Law and its implementation can create product which meets the demands for social justice. This paper will examine the role of the investigator according to positive law currently in force as well as the role of investigator in implementing the values of Pancasila, accompanied by optimizing the use of technology. Keywords: Re-actualizing, Investigation, Police, values of Pancasila, Technology   AbstrakSistem Peradilan Pidana Indonesia meliputi institusi kepolisian, kejaksaan, dan pengadilan. Peran penyidik dalam institusi kepolisian tentunya amat vital sebagai garda terdepan dalam membangun kepercayaan masyarakat terhadap penegakan hukum di Indonesia. Peran penyidik amat besar dalam terwujudnya keadilan di masyarakat. Era globalisasi yang menuntut pola kehidupan yang serba cepat, instan, terukur, dan transparan menuntut penyidik untuk mengikuti perkembangan zaman dengan mengoptimalkan pemanfaatan teknologi. Tujuannya adalah untuk memberikan arti bagi penegakan hukum di Indonesia yakni memberikan keadilan, kemanfaatan, dan kepastian. Namun yang harus diperhatikan adalah mengutamakan nilai-nilai Pancasila dalam melakukan proses penyelidikan dan penyidikan. Nilai-nilai ketuhanan yang maha esa (religius), kemanusiaan, persatuan, kerakyatan dan keadilan merupakan nilai-nilai yang membangun keseimbangan (harmoni) dalam menegakkan hukum. Sehingga produk hukum dan pelaksanaannya memenuhi rasa keadilan masyarakat. Tulisan ini akan mengkaji tentang peran penyidik menurut hukum positif yang saat ini berlaku serta peran penyidik dalam mengimplementasikan  nilai-nilai Pancasila dengan diiringi optimalisasi pemanfaatan teknologi.Kata Kunci: Reaktualisasi,Penyidikan,Kepolisian,Nilai-nilai Pancasila,Teknologi


Author(s):  
Gabdrakhman H. Valiev ◽  
Sergey V. Kondratyuk ◽  
Natalia A. Prodanova ◽  
Irina A. Babalikova ◽  
Kermen I. Makaeva ◽  
...  

The problem of the relationship of law and order is relevant to any modern society. The article tries to analyze this relationship, taking into account judicial, police and other activities. The named concepts are closely interconnected, but are not identical. They are correlated as cause and effect: there is a rule of law, there is no rule of law. One suggests the other. The rule of law as concrete reality logically precedes the rule of law as a doctrine, the connection here is hard, causal. The process is one. Law and order: a real indicator of the state of legality, reflects the degree of compliance with the laws, the requirements of all legal regulations. It is concluded that the rule of law is the end result of the implementation of legal requirements and, at the same time, the objective of legal regulation, since it is for the formation and maintenance of the rule of law that laws are issued, thus like other regulatory legal acts, various institutions and bodies and, above all, the justice system, the control system, various human rights organizations and social movements.


Author(s):  
Stuart Don

This chapter analyses the pervasive impact of the Charter on the Canadian criminal justice system. Active judicial interpretation of Charter rights has put in place distinctive constitutional standards of substantive law, including those of fault, and struck down oppressive laws for arbitrariness and overbreadth. Also examined are new standards for police powers to stop, search, detain and interrogate, fair trial rights such as the duty of full Crown disclosure, and for assessing mandatory minimum sentences. This chapter describes and welcomes a robust exclusionary discretion for evidence obtained in violation of the Charter. It is suggested that the Canadian Charter standards are no panacea and are sometimes too weak but that they have often provided a welcome balance to the expedient lure of law-and-order politics.


2009 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-88
Author(s):  
Fran Wright

This article considers the decision to prosecute a number of Pitcairn islanders for offences under the UK Sexual Offences Act 1956, and some aspects of the organisation of the prosecutions. The islanders complained that the prosecutions were an abuse of process because the content of the law was unascertainable and the legislation governing their trials was retrospective. The abuse of process claims were rejected. There was a mechanism by which islanders could ask the island officials and legal advisers for advice. It was predictable that non-consensual sexual intercourse would be a criminal offence. They were not prejudiced in any way by the late constitution of a criminal justice system. Although some of the decisions made in the Pitcairn case were questionable from a formalist point of view, most were fair in the peculiar circumstances of this small and remote island. The idea of the rule of law and of a fair trial cannot be divorced from the context in which criminal justice decisions are taken.


Jurnal Hukum ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 1901
Author(s):  
Ira Alia Maerani

Indonesian Criminal Justice System consists of the police, public prosecutor and the courts. The role of the police investigators is certainly vital as the frontline in building public confidence in the rule of law in Indonesia. The role of the investigator is very big in the realization of justice in society. The era of globalization which demands a pattern of life that is fast-paced, instant, measurable, and transparent requires investigators to follow the times by optimizing the use of technology. The aim is to give effect to the rule of law in Indonesia that provides fairness, expediency and certainty. However that must be considered is the priority values of Pancasila in the process of inquiry and investigation. The values of supreme divinity, God (religious), humanity, unity, democracy and justice are values that establish a balance (harmony) in enforcing the law. Law and its implementation so that the product meets the demands for social justice. This paper will examine the role of the investigator according to positive law currently in force as well as the role of investigator in implementing the values of Pancasila, accompanied by optimizing the use of technology.Keywords: Re-actualizing, Investigation, Police, values of Pancasila, Technology


Author(s):  
Brett Curry ◽  
Banks Miller

The pervasiveness of their influence arguably makes prosecutors the most consequential actors in the American criminal justice system. Armed with discretion over which cases to pursue, what charges to file, and which issue areas to prioritize, prosecutors play a decisive role in determining what progresses from investigation to the courtroom. It is their charge to do justice in each case, but that obligation hardly forecloses the influence of politics on their decisions. Despite their centrality, however, prosecutors and their behavior have failed to garner even a fraction of the attention that scholars have directed toward law enforcement, correctional systems, or judges. The discretion of American prosecutors is theoretically immense; there are few formal constraints upon it. If a federal or state prosecutor declines to pursue a case that has been referred to him or her, that declination decision is essentially immune from judicial review. But these formalisms come with more practical limitations. At the federal level, United States Attorneys are appointed by the president and, therefore, are expected to carry out an administration’s general policy priorities. In the states, most district attorneys answer to the electorate, which imposes its own constraints on a prosecutor’s freedom of action. Chief prosecutors—state and federal—are simultaneously principals to their subordinates and agents of the people or the president. If those considerations were not enough, American prosecutors must be mindful of still other factors. How might their actions today impact their future career paths? What influence might legislative changes, public opinion, or judicial rulings have on how they operate? Scholarship on prosecutors has addressed some of these questions, but we still lack a good understanding of all the ways in which politics infects prosecutorial decision-making. As “progressive prosecutors”—many who are former public defenders—continue to win office, new questions will arise about how far prosecutors can push reform of the criminal justice system. A major looming question is how voters conditioned to law-and-order rhetoric will evaluate the new prosecutors. Some preliminary work shows that non-White prosecutors tend to reduce rates of incarceration, while Republican-affiliated prosecutors increase them.


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