Juhani’s Law

Posted By: Law is Cool May 16, 2009

Juhani’s Law:
The compromise will always be more expensive than either of the suggestions it is compromising.

About the Author

Law is Cool
This site is intended to provide a resource for those interested in law. Current law students, graduates preparing for their bar exam, and members of the general public, can all benefit from a deeper understanding of the legal framework that helps shape our society.

4 Comments on "Juhani’s Law"

  1. Tim B | May 16, 2009 at 9:40 pm |

    …which is only really a concern if expense is your primary measure of success. It’s more expensive to have a trial, for example, than simply have the police determine guilt and punishment. Trials are a compromise between individual and state power. Would anyone reasonably say that the added expense of a trial is undesirable?

    Incidentally, I don’t know if I think Despair’s definition of compromise is actually compromise. I’d say that what’s described would be more accurately called “tolerance”.

  2. Marnie Tunay | May 17, 2009 at 1:43 pm |

    I would seriously question the validity of the proposition that a trial may be termed “a compromise” between individual and state power.
    A compromise is the meeting of two opposing points of view in a give and take that is not in essence adversarial – unlike a trial, which is in essence adversarial and which may very well not involve any giving up of position on one of the sides at all.

  3. Tim B | May 18, 2009 at 12:20 am |

    Well, a trial isn’t a compromise between the parties in the trial, but the existence of trials is a compromise between different concepts of justice. Some might prefer that the police be all-powerful; others would prefer that disputes were settled privately.

    It seems to me that Juhani’s Law is somewhat pejorative of compromise. The implication is that the greater expense associated with compromises is undesirable, and it would be better to select one of the two suggestions, rather than incur the additional expense of trying to make both parties happy.

    The informing principles of modern, advanced democracies embody a great deal of expensive compromise, and I think a commitment to democratic principles necessarily entails the additional effort and expense that comes along with that. Juhani’s Law may be true, but it may be a bad idea to apply it in a lot of situations.

  4. Marnie Tunay | May 21, 2009 at 12:01 am |

    There is also the question of what sort of “expenses” will be taken into the balancing of accounts.

Comments are closed.