G’day all.

“Theo” <> writes:

>A judge, in law, does not do that. A judge administers law that he or she

>did not formulate or even necessarily agree with.

Unfortunately the term “judge” doesn’t really fit in the modern era. A modern judge deals with complex legislation and case law. Once upon a time, there was no “legislation”, just royal edicts. What we now call “common law” is, in fact, the result of hundreds of magistrates making the law up as they went along, whatever seemed fair at the time.

School headmasters and parents are slightly better fits. Neither have a statutory requirement to act consistently, though, of course, there are laws constraining their spheres of influence (but this wasn’t always the case either).

That’s one of the reasons why I didn’t like the original story very much. We don’t have corporal punishment any more. There were stories of it when I was at primary school, but looking back I can’t think of a single credible report. That’s the schoolyard rumour mill for you.

Cheers, Andrew Bromage