Book Review: Dr. Javed Jamil's 'Justice Imprisoned'

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Book exposes the systematic failure of law and jurisprudence

By Aftab H Kola

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Published: Sat 4 Jul 2020, 10:40 AM

Last updated: Sat 4 Jul 2020, 1:12 PM

The forces of the so-called modern philosophies and systems are uniquely infamous for brushing under the carpet the negative factors in their systems even as they tom-tom the brighter side of their dispensations. However, when it comes to alternative systems, they are at their loquacious best in highlighting the negatives and ignoring the positives.
In such a scenario, credit should go to Dr. Javed Jamil, a versatile thinker and a gifted writer, for having relentlessly exposed the designs of these world forces of economics and political power whose technological and infrastructural advancement have caused more damage than benefits to the humanity. Dr. Jamil is currently Chair in Yenepoya Deemed-To-Be University, Mangalore, India.
An author of more than 20 books, Dr. Jamil has already earned international acclaim for his extensive work on what he calls 'Economic Fundamentalism', especially the commercialisation of human susceptibilities that have led to huge morbidity and mortality, as well as family and social tensions.

While his last book, Economics First or Health First? (2019) highlighted the dominance of economics over health, his latest work, Justice Imprisoned, highlights with equal clarity the dominance of economics in international system of law and jurisprudence.
Citing volumes of statistics on crimes, litigation and imprisonment, he has shown that the current international system of law and jurisprudence, though highly advanced in method, is a huge failure as far as results are concerned.
He avers: "The international system of justice based on the ultimate ideology of economic fundamentalism, adopted and vigorously promoted by the West, has caused more harm than benefit to the cause of justice. Huge machineries are in place for the application and implementation of law.
Millions of counsellors, millions of police personnel, and tens of thousands of judges are working day and night to 'establish' the system of 'justice'. In the process, law and all its tributaries have become big industries. In addition, huge governmental expenditure is involved in keeping up the system.
The orchestra is being continuously played, but the tunes it is producing are hardly what the musician wants the listeners to believe. The musician is however happy! Crimes have become the order of the day, and with the rise in crimes, the fortunes of the organisers of the orchestra continue to grow."
He adds: "Despite the trillions of dollars involved in the system of law and order, despite tens of millions performing law enforcing duties, despite the tens of millions of counsellors who vouch to defend justice, despite the millions of judges who preside over tens of thousands of courts, despite the tens of thousands of prisons that are housing tens of millions of the alleged and convicted criminals, lawlessness and crimes are zooming horrendously with every passing day with billions of men and women being subjected to numerous kinds of serious crimes including murders and sexual assaults every year. How then can we call it even a satisfactory system of law and justice? Justice Imprisoned unfolds the horrible account of how justice, rather than being chosen to lord over the human society, has been sentenced to life imprisonment in the so-called civilized world."
In his foreword, the eminent expert on modern law, Prof. Faizan Mustafa, Vice-Chancellor, Nalsar University of Law, Hyderabad, despite expressing "academic disagreement" on certain counts, has hoped the book would trigger serious debates on the causes of the failure of the present legal system in minimizing crimes, as well as in helping us find better and more humane corrective measures.
He says: "There is no doubt that people are losing faith in the ability of the system to control crimes. The factors need to be debated in detail, and rather than indulging in philosophical debates, effective solutions have to be found. Only a system and the kind of the punishments that drastically reduce the burden of crimes can be considered right. Indulging in polemics and advocating a system that does not produce the desired results will be futile."
Referring to the old dictum against capital punishment that 'Ten criminals can be set free but one innocent cannot be hanged", Dr. Jamil argues that this very dictum has in fact been the biggest reason for the huge rise in the number of crimes, including murders and rapes. In order to save one innocent life, thousands of other innocent lives are being sacrificed.
He has also argued that if that dictum is so sacrosanct, then awarding life imprisonment to an innocent person too is equally abominable, and hence none should be sentenced to life imprisonment. And such an argument will ultimately lead to no one ever being punished.

He has also furnished statistics showing that even while capital punishment is not being awarded by courts, the police all over the world have been carrying out large numbers of extra-judicial executions and inflicting various kinds of tortures.
The author questions as to how the system can hence defend its philosophy of countering capital punishment when the law-enforcing machineries are killing people, and when in most cases of deaths in police custody, the crime is not proved!
What is most interesting about the book is how the author has attempted to expose the whole system of imprisonment where the economic forces are involved in imprisoning as many people for as long as possible.
As a solution to this sorry state of affairs, he has put forward a suggestion that physical, social and economic punishments be awarded for most cases of crimes, reserving imprisonment for select cases.  
The book, running into a healthy 182 pages, insightfully and lucidly discusses topics related to the justice system through a gamut of 14 chapters that range from crimes against women to impact of imprisonment on families to budgetary cost of imprisonment to arms industry.
It can be said with certainty that not many authors have exposed the failures of the current justice system with such authority (backed by a separate reference section), as Dr. Jamil has done. This is surely a remarkable work, a "must read" for everybody.
Justice Imprisoned has been published by Yenepoya Printers and Publishers, associated with Yenepoya (Deemed-To-Be) University, Mangalore, Karnataka (India), and is priced at US $21.

BOOK REVIEW
TITLE: JUSTICE IMPRISONED
AUTHOR: Dr. Javed Jamil
Year of Publication: 2020
Price: US $21 
E-book: US $5
PUBLISHED BY: YENEPOYA PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS, MANGALORE - 575 001, INDIA
Author Contact: doctorforu123@yahoo.com
The reviewer is a prominent senior journalist based in Mangalore, India and can be contacted on aftabkola@gmail.com


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