where a higher justice is served

toured the supreme court this morning as part of day 2 of orientation. finally got an officially guided tour of the entire building, including the courts - something that i never got to do so in my last job as a paralegal.

i just get a rush from stepping into court rooms. there’s this certain shroud of mystery and air of excitement waiting to be unfolded. i really should check out more hearings that are open to the public on my own in both the subordinate and supreme courts if i want to pursue the litigating field. too bad cameras are banned in the premises, or i could have snapped pictures of the tech courts - every singaporean should get to see it for themselves at least once in a lifetime – really cool. only HK & SG have such high-tech courts. stuff that gets said into the mics gets transmitted to anonymous transcribers to type out. a single channel of recording is ascribed for every mic, so not a word will be missed if multiple parties speak simultaneously.

was also really awed by the criminal courts where the accused takes a private lift up and walks via secret passages to get into the criminal dock which is barricaded by shatter-proof glass. wanted to go check out the route of a criminal around the court starting from where they enter the building but doubt that is permitted and for good reasons too. that is a path that i may be curious to explore, but will never want to do so in handcuffs, not now or in the future. shall resign to the comfy seats of the public gallery for now, no hurry either for the lawyers’ seats which other orientation groups rushed to plonk themselves on.

our singapore legal system has a reputation in nailing criminals really hard, but i still believe that even amidst our high levels of “legal transparency”, there are the privileged few that gets away scot-free and undetected. just like our high court judges who have immunity from being prosecuted for any unconstitutional acts they may commit while serving their term till retirement. and guess what, they can’t get sacked.

ah, the politics of a ‘democratic’ society.