Sri Aurobindo
Early Cultural Writings
(1890 — 1910)
Part Six. The Chandernagore Manuscript
Passing Thoughts [2]
European Justice
The European1 Court of Justice2 is also a3 curious and instructive institution.
Under a civilised disguise it is really the mediaeval ordeal by battle; only, in place of the swords or lances of military combatants, it is decided by the tongues of pleaders and the imagination of witnesses.
Whoever can lie most consistently, plausibly and artistically, has the best chance of winning.
In one aspect it is an exhilarating gamble, a very Monte Carlo of surprising chances.
But there is skill in it, too, and it4 satisfies the intellect as well as the sensations.
It is a sort of human game of Bridge combining luck and skill, or an intellectual gladiatorial show.
The stake in big cases is a man’s property or his soul.
Vae victis!
Woe to the conquered!
If it is a criminal case, the tortures of the jail are in prospect, be he innocent or be he guilty.
And as he stands there, — for to add to the pleasurableness of his case the physical ache of long standing is usually added to the strain on his emotions, — he looks eagerly, not to the truth or falsehood of the evidence for or against him, but to the skill with which this counsel or the other handles the proofs or the witnesses and the impression5 they are making on the judge or jury.
One understands, as one watches, the passion of the Roman poet’s eulogy of the defence lawyer, praesidium maestis reis, a bulwark to the sorrowful accused.
For in this strange civilised game of pitch and toss where it is impossible to be certain about guilt or innocence, one’s sympathies naturally go to the sufferer who may be innocent and yet6 convicted.
If one 
could eliminate this element of human pity, it would be a real intellectual pleasure to watch the7 queer semibarbarous battle, appraise the methods of the chief8 players, admire, in whatever climes, the elusiveness and fine casualness of Indian perjury or the robust manly downrightness of Saxon cross-swearing.
And if one were to complain that modern civilisation eliminates from life danger and excitement, one could well answer him, “Come into the Courts and see!”
But, after all, praise must be given where9 it is due, and the English system must be lauded for not normally exposing the accused to the torture of savage pursuit by a prosecuting judge or the singular methods of investigation favoured by the American police.
If the dice are apt to be loaded, it is on both sides and not on one.