"Brokedown Palace" Law Essay
Justice is the concept of moral rightness based upon ethics, law, religion, rationality, and fairness. But justice is not the same in every country. What some countries may consider to be just may be considered unjust and ever immoral by others. This is demonstrated in the 1999 film “Brokedown Palace”. In the movie, two lifelong friends take a trip to Thailand to celebrate their high school graduation. Long story short, they are accused of smuggling drugs and are sentenced to 33-years in a Taiwanese prison. What seemed just by the Taiwanese government would be considered unjust by the Canadian government. The reason for this is because they did not follow the four purposes of justice; justice as an instrument of society, substantive justice, procedural justice, and justice as a social norm. This outline what each of these purposes entitles and why the Taiwanese government failed to follow these when prosecuting the girls. After watching the movie Brokedown Palace, you might assume that because of the way the girls were treated throughout the trial and by how unjust the laws imposed on the girls were that this shows how unjust the Taiwanese government truly is. But this is because what the Taiwanese government may see to be just may seem unjust to other nations around the world and vise-versa. According to as an instrument of society, the extent to which we recognize a nation’s laws as being just is the degree to which we identify that nation as being just. This was demonstrated throughout the movie. There were several examples of laws that in the eyes of the Taiwanese government seemed just, but in the eyes of Canadians were far from it. An example of this was the sentence that was given to the girls when they were found guilty of drug smuggling. A 33-sentence is a very out-dated and cruel punishment for any drug smuggler in the eyes of Canadians, any given the past history of these girls would seem barbaric. In Canada, the usual sentence for someone found