
Osama, terrorism and Rubenfeld’s non-sense (3)
Osama’s execution –and the manner of his disposal- were incontrovertibly vengeful. Which Obama said, was what America wanted: cold-blooded ‘revenge’! Or what Alan Ayckbourn, in his ‘Revengers Comedies’ describes as “good, old-fashioned, bloodcurdling revenge”. Yet, like the English philosopher, Francis Bacon, said, “Revenge is a kind of wild justice; which the more man’s nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out”. Suppose it is okay to ‘revenge’ a ‘wrong’; the question is: who determines ‘when’ or ‘whether’ a ‘wrong’ has been committed? One who alleges or an impartial jury?