Law on Trial

Eurozine’s British partner Index on Censorship is putting “Law on trial” in its current issue of which three are available on Eurozine now. The articles gathered touch upon fundamental issues of law in today’s democratic, market driven and media-centred European societies: Has law itself changed, or are the actors surrounding the law, namely politics and media changing the way law is practised?

Jonathan Rée charts in his article “Legal Evil” how the recent decades have seen a shift away from the rights of the accused towards the victims of crime especially in genocide and war crimes’ cases. The Adolf Eichmann trial in 1961, Rée argues, set a legal precedent in the sense that the trial was foremost concerned with retribution for the suffering of a people. The result is a concept of justice that is more concerned with shaping the communal memory of a people, involving their private emotions and the “evil” intentions of the defendant, rather than maintaining the objectivity and impartiality of the law.

Marcel Berlins and Ben Woffinden concentrate in their articles on developments in the media landscape that have transformed crime coverage into a national obsession in which tabloid newspapers act as judges rather than neutral observers – all the while of course “voicing the opinion of the population” as they maintain – in their call for longer prison sentences. But, asks Bob Woffinden, what is this populist trend doing to the integrity of the courts- and to the right to a fair, unbiased trial for every defendant? Marcel Berlins considers the legal implications of media coverage on court cases and notices two clashing principles: The right to free expression on the behalf of the press and the right to privacy and a fair trial on behalf of the accused. So far, the media have been at liberty to write what and as they please, but when these fundamental rights clash, which right has to yield?

These articles not only attempt to pinpoint which rights need to be protected above others, but moreover they disclose the weaknesses of the legal system as it is embedded in the complex web of different interests, influences and societal changes. By putting these questions forward, Index on Censorship challenges to ask if and how ultimately the public interest is served by law.

All three articles are now available online in English:

Jonathan Rée

Legal Evil (en)
The legal precedent of the Eichmann trial: from rights of the accused to victims’ rights.

Bob Woffinden

Who drives the agenda? (en)
Has the media fatally undermined the right to a fair trial for every defendant?

Marcel Berlins

Free Expression (en)
Few rights successfully challenge the supremacy of the right to free expression. In law that is, governments are another matter.