ESSAY: Thinking about Lady Justice

The figure who combines lore and law

If you stand close by the Old Bailey in London and look up at the figure of Lady Justice on a clear day and look closely - very closely - you may notice something.

The bowls of the scales held aloft by Lady Justice actually have holes in their bottoms, which if you are cynical about criminal justice will come as no surprise.

Of course, the holes are there to let the rain water through, else it may collect and distort the arrangement of the statue - even though such holes would render the scales useless for their primary purpose of weighing many things, that is if the scales worked.

But the scales are not there to be used, they are symbolic - part of the familiar garb of Lady Justice. Like so much about law they are ornaments, not instruments.

It is always good, however, to look at familiar things afresh, and so this essay is about the lore of Lady Justice, which in turn is part of the lore of law.

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