Justice Before the Law

by Michael Huemer

America’s legal system harbors serious, widespread injustices. Many defendants are sent to prison for nonviolent offenses, including many victimless crimes. Convicts often serve draconian sentences in crowded prisons rife with abuse. Almost all defendants are convicted without trial because prosecutors threaten defendants with drastically higher sentences if they request a trial. Most Americans are terrified of encountering any kind of legal trouble, knowing that both civil and criminal courts are extremely slow, unreliable, and expensive to use. This book explores the largest injustices in the legal system and what can be done about them. Besides proposing institutional reforms, the author argues that prosecutors, judges, lawyers, and jury members ought to place justice before the law – for example, by refusing to enforce unjust laws or impose unjust sentences. Issues addressed ·         The philosophical basis for judgments about rights and justice ·         The problems of overcriminalization and mass incarceration ·         Abuse of power by police and prosecutors ·         The injustice of plea bargaining ·         The appropriateness of jury nullification ·         The authority of the law, or the lack thereof Justice Before the Law is essential reading for everyone interested in legal ethics, the rule of law, and criminal justice. It is also ideal for students of legal philosophy.

Genres: Philosophy, Law, Politics

384 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2021

Reviews

[Carlos Asensio · Rating 5 out of 5]

A philosophical treatise that discusses in depth what is more important: Justice or the Law. The book is divided into two parts, one focused on the philosophical discussion and the other on analyzing current American justice. The latter has seemed correct to me, but for that there are other more extensive and specialized works. Where the book stands out is in the philosophical analysis of why Justice is preferable to the Law, defending ideas such as that the prevarication of judges and prosecutors may be justified if the law is unjust or the penalty is too great. The author reasons all his postulates starting from common sense, deducing from intuitive postulates that we all intuitively accept (as harming others could only be justified if it produces a benefit much greater than the harm caused), then despite the fact that the author has a very clear ideology there is no trace of it in the book.

[Matthew Adelstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Huemer definitively proves all of his conclusions in the book--that we should put justice above the law and that the current judicial system is rife with quite flagrant abuse.

[Cameron Burkholder · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic critique of the shortcomings of the US legal system, framed within the greater context of what it means to pursue justice.

[Daniel Melgar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not what they teach you in law school.

This should be required reading in American law schools as well as by students of American history and political science.