Law, Human Rights and democracy in the Wizarding World

[Elizabeth Dalton]

No: HPFGUIDX 31105

I take back what I wrote earlier about the wizard world being a dictatorship.
(I'm tempted to go back to my earlier diagnosis of anarchy, and to throw that
label at the British system as described by Gabriel, but as an American, I think
I should just shut up about the failings of other people's political systems.)

On reflection, I know there are laws and a method for passing them. Arthur
Weasley is apparently not in violation of laws regarding enchanted Muggle
artifacts, for example, as long as he doesn't actually *fly* that car of his.
(Of course, according to Molly, he *wrote* that law, including the loophole he's
exploiting.) And he's working on some kind of "Muggle Protection Act" as well.
So apparently Arthur's position in the Ministry is such that he can author laws
and advocate for their passage.

We still don't know anything about *how* the laws get passed, though, or what
the normal (non-wartime) judicial system looks like. But I really shouldn't try
to comment on that, as I'm really not qualified to make comparisons between the
finer details of different judicial systems (or government systems, for that
matter) even if we did have more evidence of what these things are like in the
wizard world.

All of which was probably a rather long-winded way of saying I'll shut up
now....

Elizabeth