I think you forget that it is the duty of the defence to take the prosecution off script, to tell its own version, and to demonstrate the weakness of their script, and vice versa.h_k_s wrote: ↑May 31st, 2019, 1:43 pmExactly right. That's because a court trial is really a play with scripts and lines, and everyone on both sides already knows all the data, information, facts, and law, except for the jurors.
The jurors know nothing as of yet.
The jurors are supposed to keep an open mind and then decide unanimously.
But there are rules for this play which both sides, prosecution and defense, or plaintiff and respondent, must follow.
Rumpole's remark is a warning to avoid laying the opposition's traps yourself.
But what is or is not just, is measured against a preconceived idea of what it acceptable behaviour.
Why this is interesting is that whilst one might want to see justice as an objective concept, that to which it applies with fidelity changes over time, across culture and with the particularities of opinions of judges and jurors.