Chapter 421 Circuit Courts and Death Penalty Review

Chapter 421 – Circuit Court and Death Penalty Review

Seeing everyone’s eyes converging on him, Schroeder immediately stood up and gave a military salute.

“The army will firmly obey your decision.”

“Very well.” Paul was satisfied with Schroeder’s reaction.

In fact, there were already several layers of insurance in the army, for example, the Ministry of Equipment and the Ministry of Logistics were not under each other’s authority with the Ministry of Staff, and they were all directly accountable to Paul, especially the army’s salaries were all directly sent to all levels of personnel by the Ministry of Logistics, without passing through the military chief officers at all levels.

Not enough Paul think it is better to add one more insurance.

Schroeder asked, “That …… Lord Gleiman, if the instructors and military chief officers disagree on marching and fighting ……”

He felt that some things needed to be asked to understand.

Paul replied, “Don’t worry, I won’t let outsiders command insiders, marching and fighting are still the responsibility of the military master, and the instructors only have the power of staff advice in this regard.”

“Your Excellency is wise.”

Schroeder put down a stone in his heart.

……

Thomas slowly shuttled in the Lord’s castle in the corridor that has been some of the dim, at this time has been close to 5:00 p.m., he was ready to end the day’s work intends to go home, but suddenly received the summons of the Count of Gleiman, as the Chief Justice he did not dare to be slow, hurried to the Lord’s castle.

Arriving at the door of the Earl’s office, after being briefed by his secretary, Mr. Bernard Wood-Francis, Thomas slowly walked in.

He saw that the lord he served was not seated behind his desk as usual, but was sitting crookedly on a single sofa in the corner, with the earl propping his head on his right arm and leaning his elbow on the arm of the sofa, the afterglow of the setting sun shone through the window on the floor in front of him, yet the earl himself was in such a state of shadow throughout his entire being in the corner that his face could not be seen.

To Thomas’s mind, the Lord Earl didn’t seem to be in the best of spirits, appearing somewhat disheveled, and he secretly reminded himself to be careful with his wording.

“My lord, Thomas has come at your summons.”

“Please be seated.”

“Yes.”

The Chief Justice took a seat not far from Paul.

“Thomas, I’ve been thinking about a problem lately.”

“Please speak plainly.”

“Shouldn’t we limit the power of those so-called [Civil Courts] that are spread out in the countryside, or just outlaw them all together, and have Lakewood Township take charge of all cases in a unified manner.”

A surprised expression appeared on Thomas’ face as he asked softly, “Why did you suddenly have such an idea?”

Paul stroked his chin, “I think that if we continue to allow those landowning lords to hold the power of punishment, then their deterrent effect on the peasants will be too great, and the peasants will be in a position where they will be almost unable to fight back, look at this incident that just happened ……”

His expression rose in indignation, “It was Fubin’en who used the power in his hands to pass an unauthorized sentence to let the peasants use their family’s fields to cover their debts, if this matter was handed over to Lakeheart to pass a sentence, we would have been able to discover Fubin’en’s dastardly tactics at an early stage.”

This matter Thomas knows, after all, he is now also considered a senior official of the Council of State, he was present when Paul was furious. Thomas frowned: “Uh …… Lord Gleeman, I advise you to think carefully, rashly outlawing these private courts may get results that run counter to what you expect to achieve.”

“Why? Would there be such an injustice if it wasn’t for Forbinne using his power to mess around? Then wouldn’t it be fine if we took the power out of his hands?”

Thomas pondered for a while and explained to Paul, “Lord Gleeman, the Lords’ Court only has ten officials including me, overseeing the various towns in Arda, Bairdin, and Emden, responsible for hearing cases in the relevant places, but for the vast countryside, it is really more than we can handle. For the places that we are unable to govern, we can only rely on the local prestigious gentry to form civil courts to hear cases, which is the way it has been done since ancient times.”

In fact, Alda’s lord’s court can have ten officials is already the result of the expansion, in the northwestern region (probably not only the northwestern region) most of the lords are just equipped with a legal adviser, the lords themselves are natural judges, just they basically can’t remember themselves and their ancestors have enacted what laws, need to have a special assistant to help memorize or access.

“Once the countryside at large loses the authority to be able to mediate disputes, I personally am pessimistic that it will soon descend into chaos and disorder. When it’s not their own interests at stake, the local snakes can still be of some use in maintaining order.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to let people go to a nearby city to litigate.”

“Uh……” Thomas said with difficulty, “It may not be a big deal for you to go to Port Fullan, but for most of us here, traveling all the way to town for a lawsuit we don’t know if we can win or not, is a big deal. can win a lawsuit, have less to gain than they have to lose, and perhaps …… that would make them prefer to settle privately.”

Hearing Thomas’ words, Paul covered his head in frustration, “Isn’t there any better way?”

After a moment of silence in the room, Paul suddenly straightened up.

“Well then, Thomas!”

Paul looked at the Chief Justice with very solemn eyes, causing Thomas to look flabbergasted as well.

“I’m going to increase the number of judges we have, and also, the Court of Lords will be separate from the Council of State and called a separate system.”

“You mean …… uh, did I hear you right.”

Thomas’s breath caught a little, in that case, did that mean that he would be on par with the two greats, Old Ford and Schroeder.

“You didn’t hear it wrong, I ask you, if it’s all the cases are collected into the lord’s court hearing, how many manpower do we need.”

“It’s not good to estimate anymore, because it’s never been done. Moreover, Lord Greymane, I have to remind you that a qualified judge may not be able to just read, write and do arithmetic like those ordinary political officials of yours, he has to have meticulous logic skills and be familiar with all kinds of legal texts, which may take several years to cultivate.”

Time! It would take time!
Paul’s fingers tapped on the armrest, how he would love to do it overnight.

“All right, but the reforms must begin now. I’ve decided to start by forming one or several small circuit courts to make rounds around the countryside as soon as possible, they must reach into the various villages and check for wrongful convictions, the authority of the lords must be driven deep into the hearts and minds of everyone, instead of being at the beck and call of those landed gentry, and you’ll go back and come up with a program for me at once.”

“Yes, Lord Gleeman.”

Thomas secretly lamented in his heart, a circuit court? This is a hard job.

“In addition, the power to sentence the death penalty is all withdrawn, even if the evidence is clear that the criminal needs to be executed, the file detailing the interrogation process must be reported to Lakewood Town before being reviewed by the Lord’s Court and then sentenced.”

“Good!”

Thomas strongly agreed with this decision of Paul.

(End of chapter)