Could the Legal System be More Humane

As part of the BBC-Radio Third Program Series on the theme of "What's Wrong with the Law?" the following lecture was broadcast in Britain in December, 1968. To explore the question of "humaneness in the law" presents a fine challenge to a social psychiatrist. It requires the analysis of a social institution which deals with issues of morality and authority, and which engages the intellectual and emotional involvements of lay clients with professional lawyers and judges. Every aspect of this complicated situation lends itself to psychological scrutiny.