Justice

Justice (正義), at its base, means "to be just, fair". More commonly however, the meaning of justice is to punish a criminal that has done something wrong in a suitable manner that fits their crime.

Justice, in this sense, can be served to a criminal in many ways from time in prison to execution. The classic view of how a criminal should 'receive justice' is thought of as "an eye for an eye", which means if they have done something wrong, they deserve a punishment as great as the crime they committed. If a killer murders someone, then according to this term, it means they themselves should face death as a suitable form of justice.

Justice is a major recurring theme through out One Piece, and characters' differences in what is justice are major driving forces for several key events. Thus this article is about justice and characters' opinions on justice in One Piece.

Justice
The thing called "justice" changes its shape... Depending on where you stand.

Justice has been used many many times in the series; the CP9 use this term against Iceburg, the Marines use this term to catch pirates and criminals. Justice is used in an archetypal pattern often at times (e.g. someone would talk about doing things "In the name of justice" or "ridding the world from evil"). A common theme is that corrupt members of Marines and CP9 often use Justice as justification for their actions, putting every inhumane thing they've done as a necessary evil to preserve peace to the world, this has often led people (most of them pirates) to react with disgust at their behaviour.

Pirates have been especially singled out by the Marines as a major threat to order. They are considered criminals regardless of whether they have committed any crimes other than raising the Jolly Roger and any country caught harboring pirates can have further actions taken against them. Civilians, too, are targeted by the prohibition against piracy: persons known to have associated with pirates are barred from entering the Marines (there are notable exceptions), and providing aid or comfort to pirates is a serious crime, especially if they are well-known bounty heads.

One of the ongoing themes of One Piece is the misapplication of the principle of "justice" by the Marines and other law enforcers. While the Marines wish to maintain law and order by apprehending criminals, the techniques that they (or at least some of the Marines) use can often be no better (or in some cases even worse) than the pirates they seek to wipe out, trampling the rights or needs of civilians in order to pursue its own ends. They are also shown to willingly sacrifice the lives of other Marines in attempts to pursue absolute justice or even just kill them in cold blood when they voice out against the idea of using such harsh methods, often sacrificing large numbers for the sake of one or two criminals. Thus, proving that, judging from their morally-questionable actions, the Marines are just as bad as, if not worse than, the enemies they fight. And it doesn't even end there, as the prison called Impel Down is design to systematically torture the criminals every day of the rest of their lives for simply being pirates, something the jailers seem to find sadistic pleasure in doing.

Pirates are evil? The Marines are righteous? These terms have always changed throughout the course of history! Kids who have never seen peace and kids who have never seen war have different values! Those who stand at the top determine what's wrong and what's right! This very place is neutral ground! Justice will prevail, you say? But of course it will! Whoever wins this war becomes justice!

Forms of justice are shown in the series. Marines may choose to display signs of Justice based on their own interpretations or opinions of the word "Justice". Some example of different opinion-based ideas on justice include Aokiji who declared he served a "Lazy Justice", Rob Lucci who claimed to serve a "Dark Justice" (闇の正義) and Smoker who told Tashigi to create her own "personal justice". In the CP9 Mini series, Rob Lucci was seen to have done an "Excessive Justice" to the Candy Pirates. The extreme nature of his attack against them horrified the citizens that witnessed his strike.

Doflamingo, though a former pirate and Shichibukai, is not without some opinion in regarding what is and isn't justice, but he himself doesn't seem to care for it. He truly believes justice is whoever is in charge deem it to be and regards the outcome of the Whitebeard and Marine War will have the right to say what is and isn't justice.

Absolute Justice
...Absolute Justice... Sometimes drives a man insane. Absolute Justice (絶対的正義) is the belief that many Marines hold.

The Marines follow a strict motto of "Absolute Justice", when it comes to prosecuting those who violate the government's laws. It is a central tenet of Marine doctrine, to the point where the word "Justice" (正義) is emblazoned on the uniform coats of all commissioned officers. All individuals noted to have done illegal activities or criminal acts are reported to Marine HQ and issued bounties, based the known information on their threat level - regardless of the circumstances. Anyone connected to criminals, no matter who they are, can be arrested even if they have not done anything.



The failures so far of this rule have been proven constantly and in many cases led to the opposite happening of what they were intending. An unknown amount of women and children were killed in their witch hunt for Roger's child. Rouge was aware of the child hunt thus delayed childbirth as long as possible, Garp protected Ace after his birth as he promised to Roger. A whole ship of civilians were killed during the Ohara incident in case one of the Ohara scholars slipped on board. Robin, the only scholar trying to board the ship, had been put off boarding the ship because of the others' hatred for her. When the ship was destroyed, Aokiji initially led to help Robin escape after being disgusted by his fellow Vice-Admiral's actions, an irony in itself as Aokiji intended to end the life of Robin himself up until it happened. At Enies Lobby, shooting the ship of Marines led one to protest only to be shot at for his protests. The target of the blasts was Luffy who Rob Lucci was fighting. However the only target to be taken out was the ship itself and its crew and Luffy got off the ship without a problem. Thus the death of the crew and the soldier were directly a result of the Vice-Admiral's use of Absolute Justice.

It's not known why the World Government supports absolute justice as much as it does nor where the ideals centered around it originate from, however Vice-Admiral Onigumo best described it as willing to sacrifice anything to defeat what is defined as "evil", though it does ensure that the majority of the world is held under the World Governments thumb effectively giving them absolute control of the world. However, this thought of Absolute Justice is seen to be clearly ignored if a World Noble is committing the acts. Most note worthy of all, is though they support this form of Justice, they can also be renown for ignoring justice all together. Because of all this the people who follow Absolute Justice can be seen just as bad, or even worse, than the criminals. Even after completing their goal during the war, the Marines refused to give up and continued fighting the pirates.

In the end, due to the World Government's support of slavery (despite abolishing it 200 years ago, it still exists due to the World Nobles), any form of Justice that the Marine's claim to have starts to become somewhat hypocritical since slavery and its practices are ultimately the antithesis of justice. Or the fact that Justice doesn't apply to the rich, like the spoiled World Nobles is also a hypocrisy that sadly, most Marines and civilians don't seem to understand.

Law Enforcers
To this worlds inhabitants, who fear the prevalence of evildoers, there is a purpose to us being here!!! The "Justice" known as Morality shall not be destroyed!!!

To enact "Justice" on the One Piece world, the law enforcement are split between the following groups.

Police


The Police (警察官) are local defensive forces for everyday combat with common criminals. While the Marines maintain a high order of policing in the world, worldwide police officers are employed by the World Government to supervise local areas and arrest unlawful citizens. The duty of a police officer is to maintain law and order, however they only deal with local interests unlike the Marines who maintain a global presence across the world. They leave the task of capturing tough criminals to the Marines, but aid them where needed. So far they have only deployed in small numbers which sharply contrasts the scale of deployment of the Marines.

Laffitte of the Blackbeard Pirates was said to have been a former policeman, however evidently his "Ultra Violent" ways caused him to be exiled from West Blue. The only other named policeman is Genzo of Cocoyashi Village.

Bounty Hunters
Bounty Hunters (賞金稼ぎ) are people who make a living out of catching criminals for the bounty on their head.

The reasons behind a bounty hunter doing their job is often mixed. Some are hunting down criminals just for money, others to bring them to justice their way and some for fame. Bounty Hunters also act independently from other established law enforcement groups and are free to roam as they please. They also have no fixed workings and some may hunt solo or with others. While they are sometimes no better than criminals themselves, they are left alone to hunt criminals so long as they don't break the law while doing so. Regardless, all criminals caught are handed into the Marines dead or alive.

The most famous bounty hunters featured in the series were Roronoa Zoro, who worked against his will for monetary needs and eventually quit when he joined the Straw Hat Pirates, and Daz Bones, who made an infamous reputation in West Blue as "the killer". He quit to join the Baroque Works as Mr. 1, where he eventually fought and lost against Zoro. Apparently, a majority of the members of Baroque Works agents consist of bounty hunters but outside of Bones, those who previously worked as bounty hunters and those who did not is unknown.

Shichibukai
Though not law enforcers as such, they are used to prevent criminals raising up and gaining power. They themselves are "former" criminals, yet many still operate the same criminal activities they did as a pirate though with a few restrictions.

Cipher Pol
They are eight units of special police agents that act as intelligent agencies, as well as enforce the laws. A single unofficial unit, CP9, exists unknown to the majority of the world, and has the unique authority to kill any citizen that they deem to be a danger to the world.

Marines
They are the main and largest law enforcement organization of the entire world, and they are widespread throughout the entire sea.

Punishments
Punishment is the final effort of enforcing the rule of "Justice" in the One Piece world. The One Piece world has various punishments for crimes. Criminals who gain a bounty can risk bounty hunters chasing them, or in more serious cases Marines. Those in the grand line also can risk being taken by kidnapping groups and sold off. Marines who capture a criminal may hold onto them until they are taken to a more suitable prison, like Impel Down. Some will spend a brief moment here, but most will spend the remainder of their lives here, even dying in the extreme nature of Impel Down's levels while the worst criminals are placed on the very low levels of Impel Down essentially they end up being "erased" from history. For those who are deemed too much, they are publicly executed and made an example of in order to deter others from doing activities similar to what they did.

The most popular method of execution seen in the One Piece world was used on Gol D. Roger, Montblanc Noland, and Portgas D. Ace. It involves placing a criminal on a high execution platform, above the heights of most individuals, usually in a high populated area where the normal citizens can see the criminal be punished. From here everyone can watch as two executioners decapicate the criminal with a long blade.

Another, less spectacular, method is shooting by a firing squad. It seems to be used on less prominent criminals like Nugire Yainu who was executed under the name of Captain Kuro.

Sometimes these punishments have to be enforced even on the law enforcers themselves. Policemen who abuse their position like Laffitte risk losing their position, and can even be banished from a particular area. In a more serious case, they can even be imprisoned and brought in as a criminal themselves.

The most notable problem however is that the innocent can be punished by accident, although the authorities in the One Piece world seem to care little about this. The Just Eleven Jurymen in particular had a reputation for announcing any criminal who entered Enies Lobby as "guilty". The Jurymen themselves were criminals due for their own execution and had sworn to take as many criminals down with them. On top of this, the "3-headed" judge Baskerville would pronounce both verdicts of innocent (left head) and guilty (right head), but ultimate decide (with its middle head) that the criminal was to die anyway. Thus it would seem to make sure no criminal escaped the authorities would turn to killing even the innocents, which diminishes the point of punishing criminals in the first place.

Judges
Judges serve an important purpose in the speedy and organised trial of a criminal. The Judge is arguably the most important person to law enforcement as he is the final declaration on a Criminals punishment. On the word of "Guilty" or "Innocent" a criminal can either walk free or be sent to serve for their crimes. Though Marines follow the rule of "Absolute Justice", a Judge may refrain from such extremities. Demonstrations of this have included Jango's pardon, Tom's allowance to have time to build the Sea Train and Baskerville's three heads calling out different verdicts on a criminal (but ultimately declaring them guilty anyway).

Stable Courthouse Judges
These Judges work in explicitly marked courthouses in one single place:
 * Baskerville
 * Marine Headquarters Judges

Judicial Ship Judges
These Judges travel on board of Judicial ships and may judge a person anywhere.
 * Predecessor Judge

Jurors

 * Just Eleven Jurymen

Translation and Dub Issues
Although the original version of the anime, Gol D. Roger was executed by stabbing, in the 4Kids dub Gol. D Roger was "hung" at the "Roguetown" gallows ; and in the English-language manga it says the Marines "lopped off his head" (decapitated him). The original Japanese manga never reveals precisely how he was executed (though it depicts the scene) but it remains to be seen whether this will become an important plot point in the future, or if it was simply a way of lessening the visceral impact of the character's death.

Trivia

 * Though extreme, the act of punishing those who have anything to do with piracy was also common in the real world, hence why many pirates used nicknames or epithets to protect those around them.
 * Killing babies who have criminal parents or a criminal parent is considered a form of eugenics and at the height of the eugenics movement, there were instances where criminals were prevented from having children.