VII.   Law

Punishment is a Form whereby the Surety for a Person lawfully convicted of an Offence agrees to some kind of actual suffering and hardship as consideration for Remedy to the Injury associated with the Offence.

As Punishment is a form of Fiction relating to other fictional forms such as Offence, Injury and Remedy, the consent of the man or woman acting as Surety to the Person is required for Punishment to be lawful.

The absence of valid consent in ordering Punishment represents an Injury against the Law. The absence of valid consent in ordering punishment resulting in the physical suffering of a man or woman acting as Surety for a convicted Person is itself a serious criminal offence.

In order to overcome the challenge of how Punishment may be both lawful and just, all Persons must be provided a minimum choice of either Absolution or Penitence concerning Punishment. Depending then upon the behavior of a convicted Person, their remorse and willingness to reform their character may then be lawfully inferred as both a choice and consent.

In the absence of choice of Punishment and therefore consent, any resulting sentence and punishment must be both unjust and unlawful.

No court may lawfully issue a sentence of death to the surety of a Person in the absence of clear and open consent by the man or woman acting as surety to such a sentence. Any sentence of death issued by a court in the absence of consent is a most serious crime and injury against the Law.

The first purpose of Punishment is Remedy to the Injury against the Law, not to further injure the Law. The second purpose of Punishment is to Reform character to prevent further Offences against the Law, not to promote further Offences. The third purpose of Punishment is to enforce the Law as a deterrent against other potential lawless acts.

A person or family of a person who are victims of a crime are always the third party to Injury after the Law itself and then the Juridic Society. Therefore, neither the person, nor their family have the right to demand punitive acts unless the Law itself and the officers of the Society choose not to pursue the alleged perpetrators.

The enforcement of Punishment that is manifestly greater than the alleged Offence is a serious crime and grave miscarriage of Justice.