After Jessica: The Market for Justice
Published by sauvik April 7th, 2006 in LawThe gross miscarriage of justice in the Jessica Lal case is symptomatic of the fact that Indian socialists have an extremely warped notion of the role of the state. Nehru wanted to make steel; Indira added banks, insurance, mines, airlines and what not; and Manmohan wants the state to teach the unlettered and give jobs to villagers.
To liberals, the only role of the state in a free society is to go after the bad guys – nothing else. Thomas Paine called this ‘common sense’. Thus, Sir Robert Peel, who instituted free trade in Britain, also set up the world’s first police force: the ‘Bobby’ of London is named after him. Similarly, Margaret Thatcher, who privatized with a passion, always insisted that ‘the Tories are the party of law and order’.Our socialists have allowed the criminal justice system to go to seed because to them this was never the most important aspect of the state’s functions. They aspired for ‘the commanding heights of the economy’. A fish rots from the head, and if this fish is so totally and absolutely rotten today, the blame lies squarely on our socialists’ heads.The Jessica Lal case has received media attention, but thousands of murderers regularly slip through the criminal justice system. I can cite the example of two young girls I know, Pushpa and Prabha Nair, whose brother was brutally murdered in south Delhi a decade ago. When his body was found, he had in his clenched fist some of his murderer’s hair. However, when the case came to trial, the prosecution failed to produce this clinching evidence, and the killer walked free. The sisters, who had no parents, lost faith in Indian justice and now keep two huge Dobermanns for protection.
Like the Nair sisters, every Indian must look to private security, because the state’s police looks after ‘national security’, VVIP security, VIP security, industrial security, border security et. al., and completely neglects the real security concerns of the citizenry.
Unlike the state, the market is deeply interested in keeping us alive. The biggest firms in any market economy are insurance companies – and they want their clients to live long and keep paying their premia. These big firms with very deep pockets can effectively substitute the state’s justice system, and radical libertarians have been recommending this substitution for long.
Insurers today protect us from fire, theft, accidents, natural disasters and the like. To this must be added aggression. If, instead of paying taxes for the upkeep of our rotten criminal justice system, we pay premia for aggression insurance, we will be much more secure. How would a case like the murder of Jessica be handled then?
For one, under free-market capitalism, the Tamarind Court would not be an ‘unlicensed’ bar: there would be no licenses at all. Thus, the Ramanis would insure their premises, and the insurance company would insist they hire a good defense agency for private security. These private guards would ensure that a man with a gun is denied entry. Thus, whereas the police only react after a crime is committed, with insurance there would be a great deal of crime prevention. If, despite these precautions, an armed assailant still obtained entry, and then murdered someone, these guards would be responsible for apprehending the assailant and handing him over to the insurance company.
The insurance company would first pay the family of the victim to the extent of the full sum assured. It would also pay the owners of Tamarind Court. Then, it would exercise its rights of subrogation and make monetary demands on both the assailant as well as the private defense agency that failed to keep the premises secure. These cases would be brought before a private arbitration agency, whose decision would be binding. The matter would be decided in a few days, and the insurance company would make good its claims. The assailant would have to pay a lot of money to the insurance company, the victim’s family and her employers. There would be no costs on ’society’, as all costs, from the expenditure incurred on his apprehension, detention, forensics and the arbitration proceedings would have to be paid for by the aggressor. Instead of the state meting out ‘punishment’ in the name of ’society’, this would be ‘justice’ to the actual ‘victims’ of the tragedy. There are no crimes against ’society’; there are only crimes against individuals.
Of course, in a true ‘rule of law society’, which socialist India is not, a similar result could be obtained through tort laws. Jessica’s murder was not pre-meditated, and would be an ideal case for treatment as a tort. Unfortunately, in socialist India, the citizens have no relief in torts. That is why ‘hooch tragedies’ occur so regularly, and there is never any ‘justice’ in the sense of compensation to victims.
We Indians need to think ‘out of the box’ for all our concerns. Our socialist state is a complete disgrace to every notion of ‘good government’. Thus, as with everything else, so too with both protection as well as justice, we must turn to the benevolent market.
A shorter version has been published in today’s Times of India.
17 Responses to “After Jessica: The Market for Justice”
- 1 Pingback on Mar 21st, 2007 at 8:03 pm
- 2 Pingback on Apr 2nd, 2007 at 9:13 am
As I read through this, I see that what you’re proposing is not something new; it’s merely a description of the system as it exists today in the United States (other countries too, but this is the best example). I call this the Big Red Button illusion. If there were a Big Red Button labelled with the instruction “Push here to change system overnight”, wouldn’t we? Alas, there is no Big Red Button. That means, now that you have identified India’s present state and a proposed ideal state (your opinion*), think about practical and tactical ways to go from System A to System B.
* P.S. Just as you know victims of System A, I know victims of System B. There is no hope, I tell you :)
actually, systems change when people suffer. suffering people change things. my task is only to point the direction.
in delhi, a great place to visit is tughlakabad fort. it lies in ruins now and illustrates how empires bite the dust.
curzon built new delhi - and that was the end of the briish empire.
so it will be for the current emperor, or should i say empress, but she’s resigned.
let us not be so pessimistic. at least enjoy the IDEA!
‘Manmohan wants the state to teach the unlettered and give jobs to villagers.’
agree with you that the state has no business trying to do the second task but about the first one.. whose job is that if the parents are not capable of accomplishing the first task?
sauvik,
Nice thought provoking piece but don’t you think you are overestimating people’s ability of risk assessment? numerous psychological studies have shown that people have a warped notion of probability. just think how many of us would wear helmets if it were not mandatory, thinking “it won’t happen to us”!! this is the same reason why we need mandatory insurance, pension contribution, provident funds etc and this is where state comes in with its rules and laws.
Hi
I read the first part and I find myself nodding in agreement, Your points about Indian socialists are well taken.
But dude, you were kididng in the second part, right? Please tell me it was just a sarcastic piece.
Please
Its an interesting premise of crime prevention you’ve dealt with here. Seriously insurance companies can do their bit in prevention foretold acts of crime and hence add to security network and functioning of this country.
Although Manmohan primary agenda is for the masses, I do not assume that he has left the class unnoticed. His policies in the finance ministry have received equal support from corporates.
At the moment though, as you insist, I’m enjoying the IDEA!
Cheers!
I understand your libertarian tendencies, but you are overlooking a huge caveat in your proposed anarchist system - what happens when you have competing aggressors and competing insurance agencies!? Who is the final arbiter? And why wouldn’t the “final” arbiter too not be a figment of an anarchist free-market, competing amongst themselves!?
Study Ayn Rand’s theory of competing governments carefully before you decide to advocate such careless libertarian theories. And while doing that, keep in mind that property and human rights are not subject to free-market forces or competing agencies.
RE: ERGO:
ayn rand’s misplaced views on ‘competing governments’ have been thoroughly ridiculed by linda and morris tannehill in their classic, “The Market for Liberty”.
there is no reason why a State is required either to “enforce” property rights or to “enforce” contracts or to “adjudicate” torts. all these - property, contracts and torts - have their base in custom and tradition, and these customs and traditions pre-date the birth of the modern State.
That is, property came before the law or the state, as did the ‘market’.
I agree with Ergo’s views.
The first part was very interesting though I do hope you were not serious in the second part! As to the role of the state-provision of education and employment should be provided for by the state, to a certain extent, though not like Villepin! Though to discuss that here is to go off-topic.
The police has failed miserably-the level of corruption which has seeped into it at every level is well known to all. There are a multitude of reasons for this, including lack of dedication and motivation.
Even the tiniest success by them shows us that there might still be hope, however vague, because to only look at the bad side is to fall to the lowest levels of despondency. Secondly, there are some good officers out there though their number is shockingly low. Jessica Lal’s case shows not only mishandling by the police force but also how power and influence can go a long way to shelter the lowest of criminals.
Sorry to be rude, but…
Do you have any idea how half witted your political understanding is? Arising as it does, from the best intentions of an upper middle class, urban indian, supposed intelligentsia position, that has been left unexamined by you.
There was an article in the current Time Out on you people, so I barged in, only to realise that I’ve crashed some upper class tea party.
Mr Jal, your sensibilities reek of someone who has little or no exposure to the notion of humanity except as an exploiter or in exploitative circumstances. and coupled with your miserable middle class good will, you see these shitty eurocentric realities as the givens of ‘life’ today.
Before you continue to pronounce on the world in an uneducated way and ‘theorize’ on this bizarre model that you have in your head, (which is not a model, my friend it’s just an outcome of the shittiest economic system known to man..), read some more.
Yes, in a country of corrupt Indians, how dare the government involve itself in rural employment? or worse still education?????
Let some more farmers commit suicide, after all let’s remember Natural Selection.
Expand your reading to a little more than Friedman and Ayn Rand, and what you find in the economic section of Crossword.
Or if thats too much work, atleast to your self, acknowledge your own lack of empathy and respect for human life.
I’ll be keeping watch on your website, and posting more insults when necessary. (If you have the decency and basic democratic ethos to put this on in the first place)
THE ONLY WAY TO GET JUSTICE FOR JESSICA LAL AND OTHERS LIKE HER IS IF WE THE PUBLIC GIVE MONEY TO….BHILOGS…I MEAN MUMBAI MAFIA AND tell them to take care of those responsible for the murders…also to take care of those witnesses that turned hostile….
I am apurv rai i had taken a chocolate which turned out to be covered with fungus like pojections off its surface when i complained to the officials they did not take prompt action and the company confiscated all the chocolates of that batch and tried to put the case under cover by corporate politics lets see what the citizens of india do to support a 17 year old to fight against the mnc producing the chocolates visit www.apurvrdx.blogspot .com and see the pictures yourself . after opening the page click on creativity in writing to view the photos , the blog’s name is homeless.
May the force be with us !!
Sauvik,
Wow! I cant believe you actually found a mainstream paper to get this published… But then, I should know Times Of India is after all very unique…
Your response to Mahesh’s comment illustrates your attitude…
“Enjoy the IDEA”!? That should count as the zenith of intellectual BSing.
I commute between the west and India for business: a few observations, back home in India we live in a feudal society with a sycophantic corrupt law and legal system. The ordinary citizen has little to no recourse for the law. And hell yes! the blasted IPS/IAS are as corrupt and feckless as your worst fears. My business takes me to a variety of places in India and I have 2 armed guards with me at all times, in addition I am quite adept at martial arts. (and yes I have had to use all my skills to stay alive!)
In the west, the citizen has access to a police system that works, and a legal system that actually strives for justice. I believe that the reason, that things are the way they are, in India, is an Indian world view that at its core stands for NOTHING! There is no bravery, chivalry, truth honesty or justice in our form of government and in the minds of our people. Travel the world people, and trust me you will realize a lot about the vaunted Indian mind!
Hi friend
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