Too Short for a Blog Post, Too Long for a Tweet 220

Here are a few excerpts from a book I recently read, "Doing Justice  A Prosecutor's Thoughts on Crime, Punishment, and the Rule of Law," by Preet Bharara.

Smart laws do not assure justice any more than a good recipe guarantees a delicious meal. The law is merely an instrument, and without the involvement of human hands it is as lifeless and uninspiring as a violin kept in its case. The law cannot compel us to love each other or respect each other. It cannot cancel hate or conquer evil; teach grace or extinguish apathy. Every day, the law’s best aims are carried out, for good or ill, by human beings. Justice is served, or thwarted, by human beings. Mercy is bestowed, or refused, by human beings.

Having a spine means that you can’t be afraid to hesitate because you want to get it right, but it’s also wrong not to take any action because you are afraid of external consequences. The key is to make sure that prudent hesitation does not turn into paralysis and that responsible aggressiveness does not turn into recklessness. Like anything else in the delivery of justice, at the investigative or any other phase, the approach requires balance. There is no science, no mathematical formula, no precise scale on which you can balance these things, but they must be balanced nonetheless.

The inquiry and accusation phases are about proving the case to yourself. Trial is about proving what you already believe to other people.

In the end, justice (and truth) are served by good-faith concealments. Consider the blind grading of exams: the identity of the students is hidden from professors to strip away potential bias; the evaluation is based solely on merit. Or take medical drug trials, done blindly; they are an effort to prevent bias and corrupt considerations from infecting the search for truth. This type of secondary hiding is in the service of a primary goal—fairness. Insisting that the evidence be relevant and that certain arguments are off-limits is vital to producing a just result. We blind you to irrelevancy to train your eyes on the truth.