criminal justice
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The Criminal Justice System
"In the determination of any criminal charge against him, or of his rights and obligations in a suit at law, everyone shall be entitled to a fair and public hearing by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal established by law."
Without "fairness" the criminal justice "system" or "process" would be a shambles. Justice would rarely prevail and the accused persons would stand no chance in their defence of the charges against them. The Judiciary is required to ensure that the trial is "fair". The fact that a trial was that of a "fair (trial) according to law" is just as important as the actual verdict itself. If the accused, in an Appellate court, is found to have been tried in a court that was deemed to have been "unfair" then he is acquitted of the original charge. However the concept of "fairness" is rather difficult to define. It is a tangle of current social values, ethics, procedures and equality. "All persons shall be equal before the courts and tribunals" and therefore wealth, social status, race and other social differences should have no influence in the process of justice. The case of Dietrich v R (1992) was a significant one in the area of "fairness" in this justice system...