One of the ways, in which the threefold system will shew that it is
based on the essentials of human social life, will be the removal of
the judicial function from the sphere of the State. It will be for
the State institutions to lay down the rights that are to be observed
between men or groups of men; but the passing of judgment comes within
institutions proceeding from the spiritual organisation. In passing
judgment, a very great deal depends on what opportunity the judge
has for perceiving and understanding the particular circumstances
of the person whom he is trying. Nothing can ensure this perception
and understanding, except those ties of trust and confidence that
draw men together in the institutions of the spiritual order, and
which must be made the main consideration in appointing the courts of
law. Possibly, the administrature of the spiritual organisation might
nominate a panel of magistrates who could be drawn from the widest
range of spiritual professions and would return to their own calling
at the expiration of a certain period. Everybody then would have the
opportunity, within certain limits, of selecting a particular person
on the panel for five or ten years at a time,--someone in whom the
rhythmic system, which, to arrive at any he feels sufficient confidence
to be willing to accept his verdict in a private or criminal suit,
if it came to the point. There would always be enough magistrates,
in the neighbourhood where anyone was residing, to give a value to
the power of selection. A complainant would always have to apply to
the magistrate competent to the defendant.
Only consider, what such an institution would have meant for the
territories of Austria-Hungary! In districts of mixed language, the
member of any nationality would have been able to choose a judge of
his own race. And anyone acquainted with Austrian affairs will know,
how greatly such an arrangement might have contributed to keep the
balance in the life of her various nationalities. But apart from
nationality, there are many fields of life where such an arrangement
might have a beneficial effect on healthy development. For more
detailed acquaintance with points of law, the judges thus appointed
and the courts will be assisted by regular officials, whose selection
will also be determined by the spiritual administrature, but who will
not themselves decide cases. The same administrature will also have to
constitute courts of appeal. The kind of life, that will go on under
the conditions here supposed, will of its nature bring a judge into
touch with the mode of life and feeling of those whom he has to judge;
his own life, outside the brief period of judicial office, will make
him familiar with their lives and circles. Everywhere and in all its
institutions, the healthy social organism will draw out the social
sense of those who share its life,--and so too with the judicature. The
execution of a sentence is the affair of the "rights-State."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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