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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8818829" data-attributes="member: 42582">In the moral framework that DL is evoking, this sort of case is complicated. For instance, Thomas Aquinas says that if someone steals out of necessity driven by privation, and if the victim of the theft had more than they needed, then the &quot;theft&quot; is not, strictly speaking, theft at all.That doesn't preclude the possibility of the law nevertheless operating impartially - eg we might treat this person as if they were a thief, even though they're not, in order to preserve the impartial authority of law and not to invite every accused person to engage in special pleading. But it might also be an occasion for the exercise of mercy - ie suspending the strict operation of the law precisely because it would be wrong to impose it on the &quot;thief&quot; who is not truly a thief.Towards the end of Return of the King Aragorn solves the problem of how to punish Beregond in a somewhat similar way, threading the needle between impartial and hence cruel justice, and mercy, by making him a guard of the Prince of Ithilien.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 8818829, member: 42582"] In the moral framework that DL is evoking, this sort of case is complicated. For instance, Thomas Aquinas says that if someone steals out of necessity driven by privation, and if the victim of the theft had more than they needed, then the "theft" is not, strictly speaking, theft at all. That doesn't preclude the possibility of the law nevertheless operating impartially - eg we might treat this person as if they were a thief, even though they're not, in order to preserve the impartial authority of law and not to invite every accused person to engage in special pleading. But it might also be an occasion for the exercise of mercy - ie suspending the strict operation of the law precisely because it would be wrong to impose it on the "thief" who is not truly a thief. Towards the end of Return of the King Aragorn solves the problem of how to punish Beregond in a somewhat similar way, threading the needle between impartial and hence cruel justice, and mercy, by making him a guard of the Prince of Ithilien. [/QUOTE]

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