At 02:58 5/13/96 -0400, Harold wrote:

Japan's criminal justice system is, if possible, even more of a
travesty than the US system, but in the other direction.  No trial by
jury, (coerced) confession and conviction rates approaching 99.9%

I heard that while American law doesn't convict someone until they're 
proven guilty, Japanese law basically doesn't arrest someone until they're 
proven guilty.  In that case, the conviction rate would be high if most 
suspects aren't even arrested. 

(Also don't forget the general exemption from the law the yakuza have,
at least in times past; the LDP and other power groups cut a deal with
them to suppress communists and serious unions, or so is my understanding.)

I heard they did that to cut down on unorganized crime.  Back when the Cosa 
Nostra was still active, there were a lot less teenage street gangs in the 
U.S. simply because those kids couldn't compete with organized crime.  

The consequences for Japan, the Pacific Rim, and the world if we were
to withdraw would be very, very bad---the US-Japan alliance is
probably the most important in the world, perhaps next to NATO.

One minor detail that's not obvious to most of the non-Americans on
the list: the legislature in the US is much less powerful than it is
in parliamentary republics.  The Congress can legislate all it wants,
but nothing substantial happens unless the Executive signs on (or a
veto is overridden (takes 2/3 super-majority)) *and* choses to enforce
the law, and the Judical system feels it passes constitutional muster,
and juries feel it's a legimate law.  (I'm not even going to get into
the state and federal division of labor.)

We have a zillion "checks and balances" compared to parliamentary
systems that give one party an effective legislative and executive
monolopy on power for the duration of their hold on the legislature.
(Once upon a time we had a Judiciary that believed in the rule of law
and followed our written constitution, but that was lost in the '30s.)

Since the American Constitution states that the judiciary must act as a 
balance to the other branches of government, then the courts would be 
violating the Constitution if they did nothing but follow the legislature or 
executive without reinterpreting the laws.