Administration of Criminal Justice

Administration of Criminal Justice:

• Administration of justice is the maintenance of right within a political community by means of the physical force of the State. Without the administration of justice, a person would be inclined to redress his wrongs by his own hands, which is certainly not desirable.

The Need for Administration of Criminal Justice:

• A man by nature is a fighting animal and is moved by his own interest and passions. So without a common power to keep him right on track in society, it is very difficult for individuals to live peacefully in society. State power is essential to attain civilization in society.
• There is a chance that powerful persons do whatever he likes according to the saying “Might is Right”. To control such a situation there must be the element of force, and this can be achieved through the instrument of law. Thus, it is mandatory to have the physical force for the maintenance of law and order.

Development of Administration of Criminal  Justice:

The First Stage of Administration of Criminal  Justice:

• In primitive times, might was the sole right. Every man was his own judge, a person would seek revenge by his own hand, supported by the hands of his friends and kinsmen, where necessary. In those days, every man was a constituted judge in his own cause and Might was the sole measure of Right. There was no guarantee, at this stage, that crime would certainly be punished, and if met with punishment, that the punishment would be in proportion to the crime.
• At that time a simple crime between two persons used to get converted into that between two families and ultimately between two tribes resulting in blood-feud.
• At some stage, when blood-feud proved to be disastrous, primitive society provided for payment of some money, or its equivalent, as a compensation to the victim of the crime, or to the relatives of the victim, as the case may be. This compensation was referred as the “blood money”, which varied according to the importance of the victim.

The Second Stage of Administration of Criminal  Justice:

• In due course, societies are formed and as a result, people got civilized. They started involving their elders and wise men of the society to settle disputes among them. There we see developments of minds, starts from natural society to developed and civilized society.
• The second stage in the history of administration of justice begins with the rise of the political State. However, these infant States were not powerful enough to regulate crime and to inflict punishment on the criminal. The function of the State was just to regulate private vengeance and violent self-help.
• At this stage, the State prescribed certain rules for the regulation of private vengeance. The State, at this stage, enforced the concept of “a tooth for a tooth”, “an eye for an eye” and “a life for a life”, What the State made sure was that life was not taken for a tooth, nor a life for an eye. This was definitely a stage in the advancement of criminal justice. I
• As royal justice (justice by the king or the chief of the State) grew in strength, the law began to speak for itself, and what followed was the modern theory of establishing an exclusive system to administer justice by the State.

The Third Stage of Administration of Criminal  Justice:

• As time passed, the administration of justice was started with the rise and growth of political states. Kings and emperors were given the power to give justice. But there was no uniformity in the decisions by the king or the chief of the society. Then kings started exercising their powers through the jurists they appointed for the purpose. In modern times the judicial power is operated by Magistrates and Judges.
• In the first and second stages, there was no difference between criminal justice and civil justice. With the growth of the State’s power, the State began to act as a judge, to assess liability and to impose a penalty. It was no longer a regulator of private vengeance; it substituted public enquiry and punishment for private vengeance. The civil law and administration of civil justice helped the wronged, and became a substitute for the system of violent self-help of the primitive days. Thus, it will be seen that the modern administration of justice is a natural corollary to the growth in power of the political State.

Advantages of Legal Justice:

• Uniformity and Certainty: As time passed, the administration of justice was started with the rise and growth of political states. Kings and emperors were given the power to give justice. But there was no uniformity in the decisions by the king or the chief of the society.  The advent of the Legal Justice made sure that there is no scope of arbitrary action and even the judges had to decide according to the declared law of the State. As law is certain, people could shape their conduct accordingly.
• Legal Justice also made sure that the law is not for the convenience of a particular special class. Judges must act according to the law. It is through this that impartiality has been secured in the Administration of Justice.

Disadvantages of Legal Justice:

• It is rigid. The rate of change in the society is always more rapid than the rate of change in the Legal Justice.
• Legal Justice is full of technicalities and formalities.
• Our society is complex, hence to meet the needs of society, we need complex laws and complex Legal Justice.
• Salmond said that‘law is without doubt a remedy for greater evils yet it brings with it evils of its own’.