I’m a law student. I went to law school because I’m curious about power and institutions, not necessarily because of the job at the end. It can seem trite and stereotypical, but I am passionate about social justice. I am passionate about social change. I am passionate about access to justice. I believe that societies can do better.
I often say that if you really go to law school, you’ll come out with completely different opinions. I don’t know how you can go through law school and *not* change your mind, even be radicalised. I have an understanding of power and institutions that demonstrates that law reform is always imperative, that legislation matters more than judges, that political change follows social change, that laws can entrench power and institutions and that is not always good.
And yet. And yet, it’s not enough. It’s never enough. Any law reformer will complain about how slow the law is to change. But there’s more to it than that. Law is slow to change because law is not justice. A conviction is not justice. It’s only one decision. It’s accountability, but it’s not a signal of change. There are highpoints. And there are many, many more lowpoints. Because systems and the powerful who uphold them know when they have to sacrifice one of their own.
Not to mention the sentencing problems we have in the criminal justice system. And we overstate the potential of deterrence through punishment and penalties.
This decision also has repercussions across the world. In Australia, there has been no accountability for Aboriginal deaths in custody. Young people are heavily policed, bail is not given to people charged with minor offences, children who are 10 years old can be put in prison. These are just some indications that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are overcriminalised and overincarcerated.
The work is not done. It is never done. Do the work. It’s the stuff we don’t see online that matters. Justice is in the hands of people, not systems. No one is free until we are all free. Today is not a victory.
Republished from littlemissmaudlin.