Er... yes. Before there can be law enforcement, we need to consider laws themselves. As I mentioned before, a few of the native laws only take ordinary situations into account rather than the one we find ourselves in, and, er, naturally don't take the existence of the supernatural into account. [Boy, was that still weird to say.] I have no illusions that we need an entire tome to account for the differences, however, nor that anything so extensive would be welcomed. Nevertheless, defining these things is vital for the sake of having a clear line between the exercise of criminal justice and acts of vengeance. Such definitions need to be simple as well, given that enough of community needs to understand what actions they must avoid for there to be a significant chance of the ignorant being prevented from accidentally committing a crime.
Next, there is the matter of policing. Attempting to limit that to a subset of our small yet thoroughly armed community strikes me as a fool's errand, especially given that police are a relatively modern invention and quite a few of those those most capable of apprehending suspects are anything but modern. Our focus should instead be on ensuring that everyone is aware of the need to restrain themselves when acting to stop fellow kidnappees from doing harm and applies that awareness instead. I expect us to need to prove cases of self-defense and the defense of others on a regular basis due to failures to adhere perfectly to such guidelines, however.
Concerning court, due to our small population we effectively can't put together unbiased juries with no connection to anyone involved as is the law of this country -- we'd need to rely on a system more akin to that of my home district, with only prosecution, defense, and a judge to consider. However, we have several obstacles to overcome; not only am I the only lawyer of any sort remaining, but as we've discussed, more than a few people fail to see the need for this step at all. I've spoken with one woman who has acted as a referee in the past and is willing to learn about being a judge, but the problem of our lacking defense attorneys or another prosecutor is daunting. [Edgeworth looks off to the side and grabs one elbow with the opposite hand briefly.] ...It's undoubtedly apparent that I've yet to hear anyone else's opinion on alternative forms of court, merely whether or not it should exist at all.
Finally, punishment will be an extreme challenge. It isn't only punishment for high crimes such as serial killings that our system needs to be able to account for -- lesser crimes are in need of effective punishment too. Unfortunately, the only potentially effective punishment I've devised as yet is only appropriate to the most heinous of crimes: implanting a tracking microchip in people convicted of such extreme violence and distributing a program to our phones that allows us to track them and alerts us to their proximity. The punishment wouldn't strip them of the protection of the law, merely make it more difficult for them to do further harm or escape further punishment should they commit further crimes; those who abuse such tracking to harm felons who have no intention of doing anything else wrong would need to be prosecuted themselves. I've informed Mr. Ridgeley and Mr. Kihara of this idea and requested that they find a way to make such microchip tracking devices function even during the Dark Hour. It's less of a punishment than I would prefer -- and, as others have pointed out, not impossible to overcome -- yet it's the best solution that I've learned of or can conceive of that's neither excessively cruel, morally questionable, nor essentially useless under the circumstances.
As for cases more akin to that of Onimaru Miki, I must admit that I'm at a loss for what we could sentence such a criminal to. It isn't as though we could obtain the necessary sanction to use the prison, even if it weren't essentially made of cardboard to most of us during the Dark Hour, nor can a population as small as ours spare guards any more than it can spare a separate police force. While Miss Onimaru among others have submitted to brief terms of incarceration despite possessing the ability to escape, we can't very well rely on the honor system -- respect for the law isn't much more commonplace among criminals than respect for one's prey is among predators. Fines present the problem of what, precisely, we would direct the funds to; it isn't as though we'd have a complete government with costly projects to fund, and anyone personally profiting from them would quickly breed corruption. Community service is too lenient a price to pay for assault, though I'm certain it would be useful as a sentence for lesser crimes.
I hope this deer is sufficiently teal.
Next, there is the matter of policing. Attempting to limit that to a subset of our small yet thoroughly armed community strikes me as a fool's errand, especially given that police are a relatively modern invention and quite a few of those those most capable of apprehending suspects are anything but modern. Our focus should instead be on ensuring that everyone is aware of the need to restrain themselves when acting to stop fellow kidnappees from doing harm and applies that awareness instead. I expect us to need to prove cases of self-defense and the defense of others on a regular basis due to failures to adhere perfectly to such guidelines, however.
Concerning court, due to our small population we effectively can't put together unbiased juries with no connection to anyone involved as is the law of this country -- we'd need to rely on a system more akin to that of my home district, with only prosecution, defense, and a judge to consider. However, we have several obstacles to overcome; not only am I the only lawyer of any sort remaining, but as we've discussed, more than a few people fail to see the need for this step at all. I've spoken with one woman who has acted as a referee in the past and is willing to learn about being a judge, but the problem of our lacking defense attorneys or another prosecutor is daunting. [Edgeworth looks off to the side and grabs one elbow with the opposite hand briefly.] ...It's undoubtedly apparent that I've yet to hear anyone else's opinion on alternative forms of court, merely whether or not it should exist at all.
Finally, punishment will be an extreme challenge. It isn't only punishment for high crimes such as serial killings that our system needs to be able to account for -- lesser crimes are in need of effective punishment too. Unfortunately, the only potentially effective punishment I've devised as yet is only appropriate to the most heinous of crimes: implanting a tracking microchip in people convicted of such extreme violence and distributing a program to our phones that allows us to track them and alerts us to their proximity. The punishment wouldn't strip them of the protection of the law, merely make it more difficult for them to do further harm or escape further punishment should they commit further crimes; those who abuse such tracking to harm felons who have no intention of doing anything else wrong would need to be prosecuted themselves. I've informed Mr. Ridgeley and Mr. Kihara of this idea and requested that they find a way to make such microchip tracking devices function even during the Dark Hour. It's less of a punishment than I would prefer -- and, as others have pointed out, not impossible to overcome -- yet it's the best solution that I've learned of or can conceive of that's neither excessively cruel, morally questionable, nor essentially useless under the circumstances.
As for cases more akin to that of Onimaru Miki, I must admit that I'm at a loss for what we could sentence such a criminal to. It isn't as though we could obtain the necessary sanction to use the prison, even if it weren't essentially made of cardboard to most of us during the Dark Hour, nor can a population as small as ours spare guards any more than it can spare a separate police force. While Miss Onimaru among others have submitted to brief terms of incarceration despite possessing the ability to escape, we can't very well rely on the honor system -- respect for the law isn't much more commonplace among criminals than respect for one's prey is among predators. Fines present the problem of what, precisely, we would direct the funds to; it isn't as though we'd have a complete government with costly projects to fund, and anyone personally profiting from them would quickly breed corruption. Community service is too lenient a price to pay for assault, though I'm certain it would be useful as a sentence for lesser crimes.