The reason I started studying law was due to Shakespeare, I read The Merchant of Venice, and it all made sense in that moment. I wanted to be part of a system which allows “justice to season mercy”, I wanted to be something worthwhile…
With my dream and tuition in place, I entered law school.
But after a while of being a law student I was ready to throw in the towel, my dream was stolen, the passion for the people I would help was replaced by case studies and long Latin terms. No one cared about justice or mercy. I do not even think those words even existed, in the vocabulary of the many lecturers and legal professionals I encountered.
Aristotle was right, the law is free from passion, since our legal system is based on stats, money and legal professionals, who are able to chew up and regurgitate textbooks to the letter, and not question its bitter taste. There is no place in our legal system for free thinkers and impassioned speeches, the courts believe in stare decisis- to stand by previous decisions, to hand down judgements based simply on the law, and not the person, and his/her facts…
The law is free from passion and the quality of its people strained...
Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, 1596
The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That, in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That, in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.
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