Law and Star Trek

[Ben Ostrowsky]

I'd like to refer everyone on the net to "The Law of the Federation:
Images of Law, Lawyers, and the Legal System in 'Star Trek: The Next
Generation'" by professors Paul Joseph and Sharon Carton.
Published in the Fall 1992 issue of the University of Toledo Law Review
(and available at your local law-school library), the forty-odd-page
paper goes into great detail on, among other things, the episode "Measure
of a Man," which Trekkers remember is the one in which Data fights for
recognition as a sentient being rather than being considered Federation
property. The paper is eminently readable and plainspoken for the most
part, and is quite enjoyable reading.

Though it has been stated (in "Encounter at Farpoint", STTNG episode #1)
that all Earth's lawyers were killed in 2079 after the "post atomic horror",
Joseph and Carton show that while lawyer-types are occasionally needed,
for the most part a man represents himself. No trickery is expected, since
nearly without exception everyone presents his case "in good faith". On the
very rare occasion in which one party feels he has been treated unfairly,
a full-fledged court case may occur. This does not happen frivolously or
simply because one has lost the initial hearing.

I recommend this paper for anyone interested in the law of the Federation,
and wish you all good reading. Thanks for the bandwidth.