Had you the power to do so, what changes would you make to your country's judicial system?

I would empower judges to remove children immediately from hostile, neglectful, and abusive situations and place them immediately in homes with financially stable, loving couples.
I would also empower judges to mandate that drug dependent people and neglectful parents into fully staffed theraputic care environments where they receive 24/7 care and address with competent physicians, psychiatrists, psychologists and then eventually life skills and educators that would allow people to become self sufficient and contributing members of society.
I would extend this empowerment to criminals whom the judge deemed able to benefit from this care. I would also make it available to those who asked for this type of holistic care.
I’d also empower judges to mandate birth control on all teenagers who engage in sex and hopefully this will include some type of male BC at some point soon.

I would make it so that the supreme court was not chosen by the president and that they did not have life terms. I would also make it so that a jury could not be declared a hung jury just because one person dissents.

@Trillian: I like everything you said right until the birth control part. I disagree with forcing people to take any kind of drug unless they lack the mental capacity to make their own decisions.

I would have a very deep look at Canada’s pardon system. They just pardoned a serial pedophile, and someone with a DUI can’t go to the States, WTH? I especially think birth control should be mandated in some mentally challenged people.

@KatawaGrey Ok, fair enough. Until this right to decide person has a baby they cannot afford to feed and are unable to care for it properly and set it up with all the dynamics that cre linked to criminal behaviour. If you can find it, I’d recommend that you read Dr. David Lykken and his ideas. he has the numbers and infromation, but the bottom line if that single parents, even good ones, cannot provide all the needs os a child, partly by having to work and beig gone so much, and partly because part of the equation is missing: the other parent in a loving, financially stable relationship. Lets just be up front about this, ok? A teenage child should NOT have a baby. She is not equipped emotionally, mentally, or financially. Period. The baby now becomes a burden of the state. The state does NOT see to the care of the baby personally, it gives minimal assistance to the mother who, let’s face it, has not grown up, may or may not have some support system in place, has not finished her basic education, cannot support the child….oh, I can’t get into all this.
Please know that I do not make frivolous or off the cuff statements here. I say what I say after having looked, thought, studied and researched.
That said, I welcome your differing opinion, as always.

@Trillian: I understand where you’re coming from and I agree that there is no teenager who should have a child. That being said, many children of teen parents end up being raised by their parent’s folks. I think instead of mandating birth control in sexually active teenagers there should be laws or regulations or something of that nature that make birth control and knowledge about birth control readily available. For example, I think it should be illegal for pharmacists to turn away women asking for plan b. I also think that all public middle and high schools should be required to have an extensive sexual health program in which all forms of birth control including abstinence are taught. I also think it should be far easier to get affordable birth control and that insurance should absolutely pay for it.

The only part of your argument I disagree with is the compulsory administration of drugs. Other than that, I’m with you on every point. :)

I would eliminate the fact that we elect some judges on the local level. I would also do a lot of other boring things: I’d update the Federal Rules of Evidence and Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to take into account the Internet. I would also add a Discovery rule that prevents Big Law firms from using the paper mill strategy. I’d clear up some ambiguities when it comes to the effervescent nature of electronic records.

Oh, I would also get rid of or clear up the ambiguities in Honest Services Fraud (18 U.S.C. § 1346) that allow people to receive prison sentences for doing unethical (but not illegal) activities. I could keep going, but it just gets more and more boring.

For reference I live in Canada.

- as someone already said, a review of the pardon system
– bring back capital punishment, but only for those declared dangerous offenders (who are likely to never be released anyway) and only those whose chance of release, however small, would undoubtedly endanger society to be determined on a case by case basis
– legalize pot already. We decriminalized it once and society didn’t come crashing down around us, I never understood why we got rid of that.

I would make it so the Judicial system returned to Star Decisis as opposed to the Public policy form of adjudicating cases.

At one time, cases were decided based on prior decisions regarding similar cases. Nowadays the courts just throw out all that prior case law, make up rules as they go, decide completely arbitrarily in regards to prior similar cases, and call it Public Policy decision making.

I would strip judges of their activism, as it violates proper channels. I would scrap judges that judge according to their sympathies rather than by the law.

I think the first thing I’d do is to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 16yrs old as a minimum. I don’t think any child should be criminalized. Then I would set up a new service to deal with these children based upon Psychological guidelines. Providing safe & secure environments where these children can learn how to behave in society, where their educational & training needs can be met so they aspire to something better in life.