Courts and Justice
“Justice comes from the people and is done in their name by judges who are independent and answerable.” No juries, no secret courts, and the last word belongs to the Final Boss.
The courts
District Courts
Every city has a District Court, which hears most criminal and civil cases.
The High Court
The High Court hears the most serious cases. A High Court judge is also one of the three people who must each be satisfied before a terminally ill citizen can be helped to die.
The Court of Appeal
The Court of Appeal hears appeals from the courts below it.
The Final Boss
The last court there is. It is spoken of as one, however many judges are sat on it, and it may rule on whether anything done under the Constitution was lawful, including anything done by the President (Article 67). Nobody has to bring a case to it, and it doesn’t go looking for one. Its 1987 formal name has not been used by anybody, its own judges included, since about 1994. The Twenty-fifth Amendment wrote the real one into the text.
How trials work
Three judges, no juries
Serious charges are tried by three judges sitting together. There are no juries, because under Article 39 nobody can be made to give evidence against anybody else, and ordinary people are never put in a position where keeping their mouth shut is the safest thing going.
Don’t Be A Grass
A witness can be summoned and must turn up. Once there, they can say nothing at all, and nothing happens to them for it. The one exception is the duty of candour: anyone holding public office answers for what they did in the Republic’s name (Article 19).
In public
There are no secret courts, no special tribunals and nothing heard behind closed doors (Article 66). Judgments are given in public, with reasons.
Habeas corpus
Anyone can go to any judge, at any hour, and ask what right the State has to be holding someone. The judge must answer within seven days. Nobody suspends this, for any reason, ever (Article 36).
Trial by combat
Under the Twelfth Amendment, a citizen facing a minor penalty, such as a parking ticket, may request trial by combat. The citizen fights in person; the State fields whoever it likes. Nobody has ever gone through with it, and parking fines are paid a good deal quicker than they used to be.
Judges, prosecutors and prisons
Judges
Judges are appointed by the President on the recommendation of the Judicial Council, which has a majority of lay members appointed by the House Purple. No Minister has any part in it. Judges serve to seventy and can be removed early only for incapacity or misconduct, on a two-thirds vote of all Members (Article 68). Justices of the Final Boss include Judge Michael Onkar and Judge Judith Kyle.
The Attorney of the Republic
Prosecutions belong to the Attorney of the Republic, appointed by the House Purple for a single term of eight years and independent of the Government in every decision to prosecute. No Minister may direct a prosecution, ask for one or try to talk anyone out of one, and any attempt is published (Article 69).
The Attorney General
The Attorney General is a Minister and the Government’s chief legal adviser. The Attorney General advises; the Attorney of the Republic prosecutes. They are not the same job.
Prisons
The Republic’s prisons are the responsibility of the Minister for Prisons. There is no death penalty (Article 33), and nobody is tortured or treated in a way that is inhuman or degrading, not in a war, not in an emergency, not ever (Article 34).
Landmark judgments
Becky Jordan v Marcus Langton MHP (2011)
A constituent asked the Final Boss to disqualify her Member of the House Purple under Article 41(5). Judge Michael Onkar held that Article 41 protects every Scouser’s right to an opinion, and that the Constitution does not define the word used in clause 5, so its meaning is wholly subjective. Judge Judith Kyle added that, depending on the context, the word can be meant positively or negatively. The Court concluded that the only way to get rid of a politician you don’t like is not to vote for them next time.
In forty-three years, a constitutional question has come before the Final Boss eleven times, and never once in a rush.
Page last reviewed: 29 October 2029