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abhatia · Joined: 26 Jan 2011 Posts: 37

What role does the judiciary play in maintaining order? Should it be loyal to the government or independent?

JDinardo · Joined: 14 Oct 2010 Posts: 22

I think that the judiciary system should be independent of politics, such as political campaigns and personal agendas, and that it needs to be a functioning part of the government overall. In Weimar Germany it appeared that the judges had their own political agendas in direct conflict with their government and this should have been remedied immediately instead of tolerated until it was too late. There is truly no point to law if there is nobody to uphold it and the fact that the judges seemed to encourage the political violence and blatant religious discrimination that occurred shows that this is true. I think the judges and their biased tolerance of the evil and illegal created the situation where Nazi Germany could thrive just as much, if not more, than anything. People tend to look to judges for moral compasses and will be encouraged to break laws if those before them were let off extremely lightly. The judges told them violence and violating rights was fine, as long as it was for a political agenda.

wlotas2013 · Joined: 14 Nov 2011 Posts: 20

There was no balance within Germany. The extreme bias towards the right allowed murders to be committed without serious penalties. As the reading says, the judges were completely responsible for the disproportion in power, using their position to favor the right. The courts should have no place in the government in order to separate the left from right and get rid of any bias.

carolineskate · Joined: 17 Feb 2011 Posts: 13

It seems like the judiciary really didn't play a big role in maintaining order. The judges had their own ideas and images of what they felt were right, and that didn't help when it came to balance, fair judgement, and order in Weimar Germany and in the political world. The judiciary should be separate from the government, because it doesn't seem that they did any good as a whole. On the right side of page 100, it clearly proves the judge's violent nature and they did not work well in Weimar Germany. "When many parts of the civil service, particularly the judges, were convinced that they could not shape the new state in their own image or control it sufficiently, they became a revolutionary force determined to destroy the status quo." Balance clearly didn't matter to the judges. They wanted to accomplish the set picture they had in their minds, eventually leading to more violence, and then the Nazi Party.

mfaber · Joined: 14 Nov 2011 Posts: 8

The Judges during the Weimar period only really focused on what they thought the German government should look like. They didnt see the cases for what they did but instead for what their beliefs were. This was truly unfair and I agree that the judges didnt think of balance and fair judgement at all. They were a big contributing factor to the mess in Germany.

aryerson2012 · Joined: 21 Nov 2011 Posts: 6

The bias of the judges, who sympathized with the murderous Feme secret societies and the shadow armies who opposed Germany's socialists, ordinary republicans, and Jews, and who hated anyone who belonged to any of those groups, made the Weimar Republic a dangerous place for elected public officials. The backgound of the judges points to Germany's inability in the 1920s to create a real republic. They had made a republican constitution, but perhaps half the political parties, and most of the judges, did not really believe in a republic that protected the rights of all its people. Many, both the rightist nationalist people's parties and the unreformed judges, even excused murder, if the victim was far enough to the left to make him an enemy of what they saw as a good state. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, there were many members of other parties, and many judges, ready to let them try to make a better state.

operaman667 · Joined: 14 Nov 2011 Posts: 9

During the Weimar period, Germany was in terrible disrepair. The Feme groups just made it all worse. The political violence might have been thought of as inexcusable at first, but I don't think that the judiciary did enough to ensure that opinions on political violence would stay that way. I think that they only really cared about the German government as a whole. They didn't properly judge cases (e.g. letting murders go without proper punishment) and focused more on other things that they wanted to accomplish. I think they just contributed to the fiasco in Germany. In addition, I believe that the courts should not have a place in the government. They should be independent, and make their own decisions without influence from the other governmental branches (although the Weimar judiciary did a very poor job).

bella · Joined: 17 Feb 2011 Posts: 11

The Judiciary system plays a huge role in maintaining order. The judicial system in Weimar Germany was incredibly corrupt and biased and as a result did not maintain or recreate order. The judicial system should not be loyal to the government or independent. Though it seemed to work well when the Kaiser was in power, it would be dangerous if the government had total say in all court cases. The judicial system should first and foremost be loyal to the constitution. The judges in Weimar hated the constitution and as a result, "ruled" by their own preference, which was right-wing, anti-semitic, and anti-intellectual, creating a lawless society for those they agreed with and a oppressive society for those who disagreed.

Different Femme groups, loyal to themselves (and possibly the military), all followed their own rules. Any one citizens liberty is criminal and vice versa.

also, we all posted in the same order as the previous forum post.

stone · Joined: 14 Nov 2011 Posts: 5

The judiciary should maintain order by enforcing punishments equally on criminals who failed to obey the law. The judiciary should not be biased because of personal interest or political view. The judiciary should be loyal to the constitution instead of any individuals. It should not be independent either because the law should be interpreted objectively instead of subjectively.

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