An apology made for causing serious harm to another person is a moral or ethical act, as well as an act of good conscience and a demonstration of respect. But adversarial legal processes often discourage those responsible for wrongdoing from apologising to their victims, lest their words of regret be construed as admissions of guilt or liability. Apologies are available as legal remedies only in specific conflict situations, such as cases of discrimination. Otherwise, apologies are not compulsory features of court based processes to right wrongs that have been committed. Occasionally, a convicted offender may utter an apology, voluntarily or in the hopes of reducing the punishment to be meted out to him. But, generally, apologies are rare courtroom occurrences. The overall goal of an apology is to restore dignity and social harmony. These goals clearly are consistent with the goals of justice. Nevertheless, in practice, apologies are not widely used in our current legal system. Since apologies are considered tantamount to admitting responsibility, they are considered to be incompatible with mounting one’s defence. To apologise and do the “right thing” morally and in the interests of justice is generally considered to be the “wrong thing” to do to defend oneself in the adversarial system. heko my friend Epale Oliver Kilande and Shujaa Peter O. Ekisa
Posted on: Sun, 29 Jun 2014 21:16:48 +0000
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