Why Are We All Equal Before The Law

Section one: Key Principles of Australian law

Equality before the law or legal equality is the principle under which all people are subject to the same laws of justice. Article 7 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states that "All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law." Meaning, everyone must be treated equally under the law regardless of race, gender, national origin, color, ethnicity, religion, disability, income level or other characteristics, without privilege, discrimination, or bias. But are we really equal before the law? The Sydney morning Harold released an article in 2012 named “Not all are equal before the law” saying “single parents and people with a disability are twice as likely to have serious legal problems as the rest of the population” but it’s one of

As argued by Jeffrey Reiman in his 2006 book "The Rich Get Richer and The Poor Get Prison: Ideology, Class, and Criminal Justice," the current justice system is significantly biased against poor people. Reiman points out that the crimes more typically committed by poor people are punished with greater harshness and longer prison sentences than those of executive or corporate criminals. White-collar crimes, such as environmental pollution by corporations, or the refusal to make workplaces safe, are more typically punished with a fine than a custodial sentence. Meaning, rich or corporate criminals often get away with breaking the law, whereas a poor individual is much more likely to feel the full force of the criminal justice system for a crime with less overall impact on society. This is mainly because people with a lower income level don’t have enough money to hire a good lawyer who has had lots of experience as for a rich person they can afford it and can ‘chuck money at it till it