2020年5月5日
當然,如Bring up the bodies只是當權者弄權者依法的詭計,bodies只會瞬間墮成corpses!Hilary Mantel寫到權臣Thomas Cromwell凜遵亨利八世的帝命,為后黨布下天羅法網,道出的正是今天我城的一步一驚心:「Statements, indictments, bills are circulated, shuffled between judges, prosecutors, the Attorney General, the Lord Chancellor's office; each step in the process clear, logical, and designed to creat corpses by due process of law.」
最終后黨中人無人幸免,因莫須有的罪名(牛津Sir Diarmaid MacCulloch在前年刊出一大卷Cromwell新傳,如此說到傳主所布置的罪名:「The various charges of sexual crimes and treasonous talk were full of fictions...」)給法院判處身首異處,其間也無人申請過habeas corpus,一來英倫要多待足足一個世紀,方見the Habeas Corpus Act 1640出台;二來habeas corpus在政治極端黑暗的年代,恐怕也救不了你和我和誰。人身自由、wrongful detention、人身保護、habeas corpus,從來俱是政治多於法律。
McCoy & Clark在他們的大著第二章Myth and Reality上提醒我們:「Much more important than the integrity of the legal order and the availability of the writ (of habeas corpus) is the nature of the underlying political system.」事關habeas corpus處理的是非法覊押,但當權者只須牢牢掌控立法機關,即可狠狠創法,化非法為合法。我城人仔自去夏以來,看在眼裏的還算少麼?送中條例、蒙面法、緊急規例法、限聚令……
一切有為法,絕非如夢幻泡影。
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