The important characteristic of a true justice is to have the equal treatment of individuals regardless of how much money they have and what position of power they hold in society. Acceptable deviations from this standard in enlightened societies only allow for stricter treatment of privileged individuals high in social order as more is expected of those who should serve as outstanding examples of virtues worshiped by society. "Noblesse Oblige" (Noble birth obligates) as French would say, or "More will be expected from those who received more", as Jesus reminded us. The equal treatment must be the equal treatment in the true and deep sense of the word and not a cheap and trivialized version of it. The equal treatment must not be reduced to the literal interpretation of the "equal in the eyes of justice" principle capriciously applied in laws and the court proceedings. Unfortunately, this is not something that modern democracies are capable of delivering. It is even more of an elusive goal in the American version of democracy.

The Americans differ from other modern democracies in their insistence that the law must be understood and practiced clearly and literally. They even go to the extreme of keeping the common sense out of the court proceedings apparently out of concern that the human factor and the subjective judgments do not deserve to be trusted. This "quality" of the American justice system confronted with the reality makes us ask two embarrassing questions. Question number one. If the American law is simplified in comparison to other countries by eliminating the subjective human factor why so many more lawyers per capita are needed in America than in any other nation? Question number two. If the American law is so much clearer than the laws of other countries why the outcome of a trial in court is so much harder to predict in America than in any other country in the world?

It is not difficult to find the answers to those questions. The literal interpretation of the law is not designed to make court matters simpler. It is designed to create law system where the loopholes are desired and intended features and not merely unintended flukes that eventually will be closed by heroic legislative acts of Congress. Common sense is not allowed in the court proceedings because it might make loopholes, on which powerful and connected rely, unreliable. More lawyers are needed in America than in any other country because the loophole system is by design more complicated than a system without them.

The second factor undermining the judicial system in America is the money. Money should be used in society for exchanging goods and accumulation of capital making investments possible. It should never be used as the way of administering justice. Above all, justice can not be treated as a service for which one has to pay the money. If justice is a paid service then it can never deliver equal treatment to those whose ability to pay differ so drastically as they do in America.

Americans like to think thet they have the best political system in the world. Following one discussion where the myth of supposedly higher quality life of Europeans was being mercilessly trashed, I came across an interesting statement. The Norwegians, the author claimed, are not better off than Spaniards as anybody who compares good and cheap Spanish restaurants against poor and expensive restaurants in Norway can find. People in Norway cannot afford to dine out so all the talk about how well off they are is misplaced. Following the same logic I can conclude that America is one of the poorest country in the world who cannot afford to offer its citizens the free justice system. I can also argue that Americans have lower standard of living than, say, Zambia because a funeral here is so expensive that a boy was mentioned in the news as a hero for raising money so the parents of a child killed in a road accident could pay for the funeral. On the other hand, in Zambia the family buries the dead with no money.

Money as the way of administering justice damages the system and the society in many ways. If liability suits were the way to make businesses pay for what they now steal from the society with impunity they would be worth defending. Unfortunately, all too often they damage the economy by discouraging innovation and progress.

Money as the way of administering justice is the form of injustice very hard to eradicate. Of course, money was introduced to the justice system to serve the rich and powerful and it will be hard to eradicate the injustice it sanctions because the rich and powerful will defend it with all the power they have. If you have any doubts examine some examples.

On one hand, the American justice understands the rights of the rich to "preserve the lifestyle" principle, which was passionately debated when deciding how to compensate the families of the 9/11 attack victims. On the other hand, when imposing traffic violations fines the court does not care about one’s ability or inability to pay, and neither does the public.