The Debate Between the Concepts of Justice and Equity in the XX Century Anglo-Saxon Legal Thriller

The present research intends to analyse the interrelation between the concepts of justice and equity within a precise contemporary literary genre, i.e., the legal thriller by looking into the cultural and juridical contexts that have contributed to the development and representation of such concepts. Such an interdisciplinary task will therefore imply the perusal of different fields of research in order to compare the parallel development and intersections of fundamental doctrines and ideas. It will begin by presenting a detailed excursus into the law and literature movement, from where the humanities’ interest in the law and its cultural representations derived in their first official and authoritative form. The gradual progression of the law and literature movement’s interest from the purely literary and rhetoric resemblances of the two fields towards a consideration of the “humane” aspect and the effects of the law on society broadened the perspective from “law and literature” to “law and culture.” As a result, there has been an increasing proliferation of representations of the law in popular culture in the light of a more self-conscious form of postmodernism. This context provides the ideal background for humanistic considerations on justice and the tools that have been employed in time to uphold it (and more specifically here, law and equity). In particular, it will be important to focus on the “perception of justice” which motivates people’s recourse to the law and their reactions when they feel they have been wronged. The reason for law’s insufficiency and for the public’s general dissatisfaction with legal authorities and institutions may be explained by a deeper divergence that recurs throughout the study: that between legality and morality. Equity fits into this equation as a corrective and supplementary means to ordain a more justly felt solution when the above mentioned rules were too strict or limited to do so. It is therefore analysed at this point in its juridical, ethical, and moral implications and tied with both law, as a starting point that it could adjust according to the situation, and justice, which is its ultimate goal. Other attributes characterizing justice are flexibility, mercy and individuality and its original role was to judge appeal cases that were not satisfactorily regulated according to the law. The division between law and equity is still perceived today, as is that between legality and morality, legal justice and moral justice, and law and revenge. Both law and equity are considered crucial for society’s well-being, especially in an international and cosmopolitan context such as the one we live in today. As it is illustrated in the historical perusal following this consideration, the legal thriller’s fortune has alternated since its origins according to the public’s relation with the legal profession. The selected English authors (P.D. James, Tim Parks, Frances Fyfield, and Sarah Caudwell) are very different from one another in order to observe how differently justice and equity can be portrayed and the diverse solutions that different protagonists adopt to reach their results. Their works were all written from the 1980’s to the present day: this period is in fact characterized by an attitude of “affirmative postmodernism,” in which people were aware of the law’s imperfections and inability to distribute justice but still willing to acknowledge that this is better than no system at all. Furthermore, the legal thriller sustains that the situation could be improved thanks to the intervention of professionals who are “willing to go the extra mile” to attain justice for those in need. Perfect justice is not of this world, but legal and equitable doctrines can go a far way to reaching the “next best” result. These ideas are all part of the contemporary legal thriller, which has been living its latest and strongest revival ever since. The heroes and heroines in the legal thriller feel the difficulty rising from the coexistence of the two: those who manage in some way to reconcile the two by disobeying the law only when it prevents them from doing the ‘right thing’ are portrayed as equitable professionals in whose hands the legal system would no doubt be safer than in those of their more materialistic colleagues. Particular features of lawyers, prosecutors, defending lawyers, practising women, and judges will also be listed and described in detail. The equitable doctrines that will be explained are analysed from a humanistic and literary point of view, although the historical and legal context is also considered in order to not lose track of their technicality and of their present moral charge. In this manner, the presence of equity in the pursuit of justice – in this case in hypothetical scenarios such as those provided by literature – is broadened. Conscience is the first legal doctrine to be taken into consideration: equity in fact was originally known as the “King’s conscience” but then became more individualized, leading to its distancing from human laws, in favour of a more powerful moral code. For this reason it has often been the subject of novels, where such ‘equitable’ decisions could be reflected upon. Judicial discretion represents the margin of flexibility that equity initially provided as a corrective means in order to adjust a sentence to the case. It too was rooted in morality, and more precisely in the idea that judges spoke in the Lord’s place and in modern times that it could compensate lack of clarity when applying a law. Following that, reasonable doubt and its goal to ensure that the defendant is sentenced only if the judge and jury can conscientiously proclaim him or her guilty of the charge recalls conscience and discretion, as well as the careful consideration of individual circumstances in each trial. Finally, poetic justice is a literary instrument with which a “corrective justice” is pursued in novels when the law, hindered by its obligation to intervene only in cases of legal transgressions cannot punish the culprit through its own means. It does so by presenting an “equitable tailoring” of final solutions and judgments, in the guise of punishments that recall the original injury. The analysis of the novels through these legal and moral doctrines therefore sustains the argument that equity is a founding concept of the legal thriller genre and represents the more flexible and personal part of humanity’s search for justice. It also demonstrates the complexity of the relationship between equity and law and of its negotiations in literature, here considered as a neutral ground on which hypothetical cases and stories can be experimented. What is reiterated in the concluding remarks of the study is the dire necessity for justice to be pursued both through legal and equitable means and in particular by people who have justice’s interests at heart. This can be accomplished through “ethics of criticism,” an epistemological means through which ideas and proposals about justice and its upholding can be debated while not necessarily compromising the consolidated ideas that have been proven useful. In a cosmopolitan world like the present one in fact, the mingling of customs, cultures, and legislations is currently prompting the need to reconcile multiple perceptions of justice and injustice and take many new categories’ voices into account while providing a stable and reliable legal system capable of maintaining order. This search for equilibrium is strongly present in the legal thriller genre, for it seeks to reconcile the law’s reliance on comforting and conclusive texts and results with literature’s ability to question and prod obsolete conceptions and by narrating of order, chaos, and the restoration of order through alternative solutions and innovative thought patterns.