The devil is in the technicalities

CORPORATE WATCH

- AMELIA H.C. YLAGAN

“Why do defendants in a case sometimes win because of technicalities,” I asked my attorney-friend. When technicalities of the law make a guilty person get away scot-free, has justice been served to the complainants?

Take the case of The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare (my baccalaureate degree was AB-English Literature — hence my reference):

The rich merchant of Venice, Antonio, guaranteed a loan of his friend Bassanio from Shylock, who was notorious, as Jews were, for his usurious money lending rates. Bassanio’s urgency for 3,000 ducats was for expenses in his courtship of the rich heiress Portia, who had set up a final selection of a husband from among her suitors. Shylock was the last recourse for the need because the often-delinquent borrower Bassanio’s trading ships had sunk, and his overextended creditor-suppliers were crying out for his blood. Indeed, blood was the remaining collateral acceptable to Shylock from Antonio, who determinedly pitched for no interest for usance, but agreed to Shylock’s exacting “a pound of flesh” if he, Antonio, would not give back to Shylock at a certain date, the money Shylock lent to Bassanio. Antonio’s own money was tied as his ships and merchandise were at sea to Tripolis, the Indies, Mexico and England.

N.B.: The Merchant of Venice is believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598, at the height of Venice’s 16th century maritime trade, where merchants acted as crucial middlemen between Europe and the Middle East, importing goods like spices and silk, and facilitating finance, including early forms of banking and credit. A new aristocracy was rising from the capitalist merchants who financed shipments and contracted with buyers in foreign lands. The Jews were ostracized and discriminated against, although they were rich and financially influential.