WRITTEN LAW IS NOT ALWAYS EQUIVALENT TO JUSTICE

In The Caucasian Chalk Circle, the Written law is not always equivalent to justice. Justify this statement basing your illustration on the Play.

Many modern-day societies are built around the written law. Such law defines the sovereignty, powers and the rights of each individual. However, the laws also dictate the limitations to such rights and their impact. In the play, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Bertolt Brecht observes that sometimes, the written law is not always justice. 

In the prologue, the old man representing the Rosa Luxembourg, exclaims that the disputed land belongs to them by law upon which, the Girl Tractorist observes that such laws ought to be changed. Although this is an indicator of the changing rules, it also postulates the new norm -  a norm that transcends laws that have refused to keep up with the changing society.

During the times when Azdak was judge, the written rule becomes the judge's cushion. Instead of following the written law, Azdak follows the common law to pass judgment. According to the law, a person found with illegally acquired goods must be charged with theft. However, when an old woman is accused of stealing from three farmers, instead of Azdak charging her for theft, he claims that the stolen cow and ham were in the woman’s possession by miracle. He reprimands the tree farmer for not believing in miracles and fines them. Although Azdak broke the written law, his keen sense of seeing beyond the law reveals the woman as a victim of circumstance and therefore rewards her for suffering in a highly individualized society.

In another case, Azdak finds a man- a stableman- accused of rape innocent. Rape is a highly emotive issue especially in the present day society where the Me Too campaign is urging women to speak about the atrocities committed against them by the menfolk. In the play, Azdak is confronted by a caring father-in-law (inn Keeper) who sues a stableman for raping the wife of the son who was in war. After observing the case keenly, Azdak rules in favour of the stableman and fines the Inn Keeper commanding him to surrender the beloved roan to the court.

Finally, when Natella comes back to claim the child, Azdak uses unconventional means to give the child to the real mother. In as much as the law allows for the real mother to be biological, in this case, Azdak’s law allowed the real mother to be humane and considerate- not driven by greed for power vested in the child.

In the case Azdak ruled, if he had followed the written law, the gullible and the greedy would have had their day. However, in retrospect, the weak enjoyed Azdak’s ruling getting justice without buying. Although Azdak could be seen as having broken written law, his judgment nevertheless rendered the deserved justice.