Judicial Governance of the Long Blur

Abstract

In a recent issue of Futures, I concluded an essay on the futures of the courts and law with an ancient Chinese poem which I first heard read by the Chief Justice of the Courts of Singapore, Yong Pung How. The poem said that one of the signs of a well-governed polity is that “the courts of justice are overgrown with grass” (Dator 2000). I have also been known to argue passionately that, while some polities are closer to being democratic than others, no current system is democratic; that true democracy lies in the future, most likely as enabled by some forms of electronic direct democracy (Dator 1999).