Justice: A Lawyerly Response

[Susan McGee]

No: HPFGUIDX 5973

> 
> Which leads me to think of another Vigilante Justice scene in Book 
3 - the Shrieking Shack "trial" of Peter Pettigrew - Sirius and Remus 
are completely  prepared to take an action which could be seen in 
this way (and Harry's  assent to them killing Peter if he tried to 
escape is a perfect definition  of Imperfect Self Defense - the 
concept that, as a matter of law, you can  kill someone if you 
reaosnably believe that the person poses an imminent
> threat to your life or the life of another, even if that belief as 
to  imminence or as to threat is NOT correct (not property, life) - 
because if  Peter had made an attempt to escape, then it would be 
reasonable to conclude  that Harry's life - and other lives - would 
be in danger (it's easy to not  remember that Wormtail *killed twelve 
muggles* for no reaosn, other than to
> frame Sirius and escape the blame for what Voldemort did to Lily & 
James)
> and Harry's life was in danger by wormtail's escape - but any 
imminence on
> that night in Book 3 would've been incorrect, thus imperfect self
> defense/defense of another)
> 

of course there could be a different standard of self defense in the 
Wizard world...

I would suggest that we have a bias that justice can "only" be 
achieved through the courts, and that vigilante justice is by 
definition unjust.

My idea of courts is that the community sets laws and standards, and
then elects judges to determine guilt or innocence -- therefore 
enforcing community morality. 

However, justice could be meted out by an individual -- it might be 
illegal (might not) -- but it could still be justice.

I would suggest that the Wizard AND Muggle world might have been 
better off had Lupin and Black killed Peter Pettigrew. I think here 
there might be a conflict between the pagan and christian world view.
The christian world view says that vengeance is the lord's and 
therefore Lupin and Black would be sinning by killing Peter. The 
pagan world view suggests that a person is responsible for their 
actions. Lupin and Black could have therefore made the decision to 
kill Peter in the best interests of themselves, the Wizard world, and
as payback for Lily and James. Because they are both basically good 
people, they probably would have suffered for their action (remorse, 
regret, but they would have paid that price in order to rid the world 
of Peter. 

Susan