Adversarial v Inquisitorial Justice.

"Common Law" countries, e.g. England & the USA, use the adversarial system of justice. The inquisitorial system is used particularly in many European countries and continental jurisdictions, e.g.France, which use the "Civil Law" system. The two are completely different & opposite.
https://www.lawteacher.net/free-law-essays/constitutional-law/inquisitorial-and-adversarial-system-of-law-constitutional-law-essay.php

I have quite a bit of experience of English law, both through working in the system as a volunteer lay person & in two instances of personal experience. I was a Magistrate for 12 years & I was a member of the Independent Monitoring Board at Gloucester prison for 3 years. One of my two personal experiences of trying to get justice was in the Small Claims Court. The other is a personal injury case which is ongoing.

So I feel I have a reasonably informed view of Justice in the UK. It seems to me that there is quite a lot of Law - but not an equal amount of Justice. Our adversarial system means that ordinary people who come into contact with the Courts stand very little chance of understanding the rules or language of the game - Make no mistake it is a game. A costly game where peoples lives & reputations are at stake.

It is costly in all ways. Financially you either have to have very deep pockets or no money at all to have access to justice. The cost to your psychological well being because of the stress involved can be very high too. Then there is the time cost. My current case will have take 3 years from my accident to get to court.

The cost of actually appearing in an adversarial court is very high indeed. The defence lawyers will try very hard to dismiss or lessen your case. They will use every means to bring your character into disrepute. They will attack your version with every method they can find. That is what adversarial means. You have to be very strong to withstand that public assault.

The inquisitorial system requires the Judge to take the role of actively enquiring & investigating, rather than being the arbiter between the adversasial barristers. The inquisitorial system seems to me to be far fairer. Every method is used to find the true facts of the case in advance of it appearing in Court.

Unless it is a matter of principle,injury or a really serious charge against you, I can't see how many people have the incentive to go to Court.

   

Life - the path to Enlightenment?

We are all at different stages in our lives & in our understanding of what life really is. I believe that life is a journey from birth to death, which gives each of us the opportunity to become our "best" selves. Our lives are learning experiences, good & bad, which can help is to become "Enlightened".

However, not everyone is ready to hear the messages life gives us. Or understand why we experience both wonderful & awful incidents throughout our journey.

Humans want to be happy. Today there is a huge problem because people think that happiness is their right & they should not have to suffer. I don't think it is possible for many people to be happy all the time - To be satisfied with their lot - To be content. People always strive for more. More friends, more posessions, more money, a better job, more power....Striving makes people disatisfied. If you are disatisfied you aren't happy.

Life is a lottery - Dreadful things happen. We are tested & can discover that we are able to deal with really bad events. Expecting to swan through life without any problems to cope with is naive. There has to be a balance in everything - Good & bad, positive & negative, hot & cold, black & white....It is the way the world works. We have to accept that & cope with both sides of the lottery as well as possible.

If you see life as a roller coaster of ups & downs, a series of tests & challenges, then you can put it into perspective. If you can see it as a continuous opportunity to learn & become a better you, you can reach some sort of stage of Enlightenment.

Currently there is very little Harmony. I think that is because we have forgotten what the purpose of our life on earth is - Enlightenment.

Complaining & Confrontation

Sometimes life makes you think. A couple of things have happened this week which have put me on the back foot. They involved people I care about & how they reacted to situations very differently to me.

Firstly lets be clear. If I think something is wrong I do confront it. That might mean that I just face up to the fact that it has happened & really think around it - What I said or did & what the other person said & did. Having done that I might talk the situation over with an uninvolved third party whose views I respect to try to put it into perspective.(That used to be my husband, but now he isn't around it's more difficult). Then I may or may not decide that I need to do something about it with the people actually concerned in the situation.

I suppose the latter solution is complaining. But I think it is the mature & adult way of trying to put things right. (Anyway is complaining a dirty word?) I also think that if you just ignore things which have upset, disappointed, offended, annoyed or outraged you, there is a danger that you become too passive & cowardly, rather than tolerant.

Should we really tolerate things which are wrong? That just seems to make them acceptable.

Just so you can get an understanding without me identifying anyone - If I pay for goods or services, I expect the provider to meet my reasonable expectations of their quality. If for some reason I am disappointed, I will decide whether to say something on the basis of how many things were wrong, whether there were good reasons for the fall in standards & whether other people might forseeably also be disappointed if they experienced the same thing. If the latter is the case then I feel one should flag up the problems to the provider, or they will just continue to exist. That is a justifiable complaint.

The point is that there are times when things need to be said, discussed, thrashed out. I understand it can be difficult for some people to do - Confrontation is difficult. It needs to be assertive, not angry. Best of all it shouldn't be emotional, but that is a real skill. Burying it & saying nothing takes something away from your own autonomy & rights. It can also cause psychological & physical harm.
https://www.learning-mind.com/conflict-avoidance/

There is nothing wrong with having different views or ways of behaving to someone else. There is nothing wrong with a heated argument if you have strong beliefs. There should be nothing wrong with telling someone that they have offended or upset you in a calm way.

What is wrong is imagining that you can go through life with everything being sweetness & light & rosy tinted. If you do that tensions arise & you can end up angry, anxious & stressed.

Stress is a killer.  

Being 75

Today is my 75th birthday. A mid January birthday has never been much fun. It's usually miserable weather. People are glad to be through Christmas & New Year. They have gone back to work & don't really want to think about cards, presents & special days. Possibilities for a day out are very limited.

For me 75 is different somehow. It is more of a milestone in some ways. I am no different to how I was yesterday - but I am. Time seems to be going faster. I am a day nearer finding out what, if anything, is on the other side of the great divide. I need to make the most of the time I have.

I would like to be confident that I will do the things that have been on my back burner for years - Spending my time painting & working with textiles - Allowing myself to sit & read - To sit & play the piano - Basically just enjoy myself.

I would like to be less task oriented. I would like to ditch the never ending "to do" list. I would like to be spontaneous. I would like to be outrageous & disgraceful. Not to be so concerned what others think of me.

But I don't think it will happen. I fear I will probably go into the furnace basically the same person I have always been, because the behaviour patterns are ingrained. They were habits learned very early on from a dominant & controlling parent.

All is not lost. I do believe we can learn new habits. We can be self aware. If I can learn a new way to brush my teeth from my hygienist, I can also learn to be more generous to myself! I can learn how to ask for help when I need it.

The problem is that everyone I know knows the me they are used to. They may not like the me who emerges in the same way if I succeed. It's a risk I'll have to take if I'm to be outrageous & disgraceful.

Thoughts

Thought is "an aim-oriented flow of ideas & associations that can lead to a reality-oriented conclusion".

Thinking is "the process of considering or reasoning about something". It "allows humans to make sense of, interpret, represent or model the world & make predictions about it. It is helpful because we have needs, objectives & desires. We make plans & attempt to accomplish our goals".
https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=XsvPF5iPUT0C&oi=fnd&pg=PA3&dq=Thinking+%26+Neurology&ots=Jtpkx33I6d&sig=OVqiIUF3VMNr9NcValzBS3gM364#v=onepage&q=Thinking%20%26%20Neurology&f=false

What we have to ask ourselves is - Do thoughts exist? Or, are they just a construct we have created?

My thoughts are not tangible, I often think that is a very good thing! They exist only inside my head. You cannot see, hear or feel them unless I speak them out loud. I can create conversations & even whole worlds in my head which have no real existance. I can imagine situations & places. I can re-run the events of the day, enjoyable or worrying. Depending on my mood my thoughts can be positive & beneficial or very negative & harmful.

Thoughts are probably patterns of transient electrochemical activity in the brain. When you actually have a thought it does exist, but only for you. Thoughts are part of the Internal World, not the Physical World. The really interesting thing is that everyone's Internal World is different. So much so that it is worth contemplating how on earth we communicate & find common ground. We are not "in the same audience, watching the same show we call life".

The thing we need to be aware of is that our thoughts can get out of hand. We are in danger of thinking that our thoughts are reality. Ask anyone who has suffered from serious depression - their actions & whole world is coloured by negative thinking. Our emotions become involved to too great a degree, when what we really need is rational thinking.

 

The real danger is that we stop thinking for ourselves & let others think for us or tell us what to think.

Of course, these are just my thoughts!

 

Worry & Anxiety

Years ago, I did worry, a lot - About my job as a headteacher, about whether I was a good enough mother, about what people thought of me, about how I looked, about whether we had enough money, probably about almost everything in my life.

I would wake in the middle of the night in a complete panic about something. I would obsessively write "to do" lists in case I forgot something - (I never featured on any list). Worry & anxiety led to a complete breakdown & early medical retirement at 46, which necessitated a psychiatric consultant & strong medication.

Then I read lots of books about stress & life skills. I read a book written in 1944 by Dale Carnegie called "How to stop worrying & start living". Putting aside the very American style & repetitiveness, the basic message was simple - whatever you are worrying about, think about the worst case scenario, accept that it might happen, but understand that statistically the probability is that it won't. It works - Trust me. In the 29 years since, I have proved time and again, that the worst case scenario hardly ever happens.

In addition, all the books I read taught me that whatever worry & anxiety you have can be dealt with if you face it. You have no choice but to face it, because it probably isn't going to go away of it's own accord. Each time I operated in the way I've outlined, I dealt with whatever the problem was & each time I did my confidence in my own capacity to deal with life's ups & downs increased.

Worry & anxiety are very negative & harmful emotions. They affect your physical as well as mental health, sometimes severely. https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/anxiety-and-panic-attacks/anxiety-disorders/#.Xgx_Wvzgr7A

They prevent you from living well - But there are ways to cope.
https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/every-mind-matters/anxiety/

Now I'm almost 75 I know that I can cope with almost anything, which is just as well because life has not been easy, far from it. You need to develop confidence in yourself & your own ability to cope - You have no choice.