Monday, July 21, 2008

Hammurabi


THE CODE OF HAMMURABI WAS WRITTEN ON STONE, BUT CLAY WAS THE MOST COMMON MEDIA - $1,000 CASH PRIZE FOR DIGITAL-AGE ANSWERS


And yet, Hammurabi (~1760BCE) is credited with generating a code - a deliberate attempt to eliminate ambiguity in the court room.





Hammurabi is known for the set of laws called Hammurabi's Code, one of the first written codes of law in recorded history. These laws were written on a stone tablet standing over six feet tall that was found in 1901. Owing to his reputation in modern times as an ancient law-giver, Hammurabi's portrait is in many government buildings throughout the world (Wikipedia).


With the transsition into the digital age, ~1980 (the emergence of dBase and large scale database management programs), the Los Angeles Superior Court managed to bring us further back then Hammurabi...

The essence of generating a code, for which Hammurabi is given the credit, is in reduced ambiguity in the courtroom. Today we call it Due Process, and it is inherently tied to civil rights and protection of the weak from the stronger, with transparency, and with elimination of corruption.


But the transision to the digital age, presumbaly progress, was accopanied by the opposite process - a deliberate attempt to increase ambiguity in the court room. Things that were simple and clear became elusive and abstract notions, and therefore - fertile ground for the growth of obstruction and corruption. Following are some basic questions you should ask any lawyer appearing before the Los Angeles Superior Court. This blogger is offering a bet of $1,000, that no attorney in Los Angeles County can umbigously answer the following simple questins relative to the Los Angeles County Superior Court:


  1. What is the Book of Judgments (1. Book of Judgments)?

  2. Where is the Book of Judgments?

  3. Why it is hidden from the public in violation of the law?

  4. What does it mean "to enter into the Book of Judgments" (2. Entry of Judgmennt)?

  5. What does it mean to notice (to notify) that Judgment was entered into the Book of Judgment (3. Notice of Entry of Judgment)?


In the 30 years since the introduction of computers into the LA Superior Court, the Judiciary managed to ambiguate even a simple concept, at third degree of separation from the original one - Book of Judgments - which is by now a complete mystery to most.


How did the judiciary manage to pull off such a hoax on a county of millions?

Well - this is Los Angeles County!


How did the judiciary manage to pull off such a hoax on a one fo the largest legal communities in the U.S.?

Well- one must assume it was beneficial to the bigger, stronger offices.


How did the judiciary manage to pull off such a hoax over ACLU, the Califonia First Amendment Project, the California First Amendment Coalition, a number of excellent law schools with some of the finest constitutionnal law professors in the Country?

Go figure...