The Justice of the Heart in &lt;i&gt;Little Brother&lt;/i&gt;

Narnia Bohler-Muller

doi:10.16997/eslj.46

Abstract

This contribution examines how the short sci-fi movie Little Brother challenges traditional jurisprudential debates and the nature and meaning/s of law and justice. The focus rests on a critique of the application of legal rules in a mechanistic fashion and explores the possibilities of developing a jurisprudence 'of the heart', which recognises human beings as embodied selves in search of understanding and a more compassionate conception and practice of justice. Little Brother provides ample material for social and legal critique as the story focuses on the dire consequences of a mechanistic application of law without reflexivity, and the damage and pain that can be caused when the law is enforced without imagination, as may be illustrated in the South African Constitutional Court case of Masiya v Director of Public Prosecutions, (2007) CCT 54/06. In analysing this particular movie, the (literally) mechanistic qualities of the judgment against the accused, Frendon Ibrahim Blythe, is juxtaposed against an approach that recognises the value of narrativity, particularity and singularity. This focus facilitates a (re)consideration of the fundamental elements of the judicial system and offers a suggestive scrutiny of the system itself.

Highlights

C onsidered to be one of the most progressive constitutions in the world, the South African C onstitution, 8 1996 provides in s.39(2) that: When interpreting any legislation, and when developing the common law or customary law, every court, tribunal or forum mus t promote the spirit, purport and objects of the Bill of Rights
Despite the scope made available for judicial review and judicial activism, courts in South Africa – including the C onstitutional C ourt - have tended to adhere to a rather outdated and constrained attitude of deference to the executive and legislature, (Bohler -Muller, 2007, p. 90) rather than actively and creatively responding to suffering
Defense counsel argued that Masiya could only be convicted of indecent assault, and not rape, as the common law definition of rape in South Africa at the time was limited to non consensual vaginal sexual intercourse, and did not include anal penetration of either women or men

Summary

FRENDON IBRAHIM BLYTHE FACES THE MACHINE

Law sets itself outside the social order, as if through the application of legal method and rigour, 16 it becomes a thing apart which can in turn reflect upon the world from which it is divorced. (Smart, 1989, p. 11, emphasis added). Frendon is brought before this automated court constructed to deal speedily, effectively and efficiently 19 (as only a machine is able to do) with legal infringements perpetrated by the poor He is unemployed and has been living in „C ommon Ground‟ - government sponsored underground accommodation where inhabitants eat and sleep in shifts to conserve space, while having almost no hope of employment or a normal life „above ground‟. Frendon submits before Prime Nine and the jurors that his circumstances and motivations should be considered and proceeds with a narration of his life He describes himself as „White Noise‟, a „Backgrounder‟, who has spent twenty seven years of his life living underground, hardly ever seeing the sun. Frendon Ibrahim Blythe is pronounced guilty by default before the technicians are able to 24 fix the logic problem He is executed by Prime Nine, and his brain is extracted by a metallic tentacle -like probe. The Kafkaesque nature of the courtroom scenario in Little Brother, where the law and its systems are 27 depicted as unquestionably rational and passionless is reminiscent of the Franz Kafka‟s execution machine in

In the

THE JUSTICE OF THE HEART

THE FUTURE IS NOW