Note: If you're really afraid of spoilers for Star Wars: Episode III, read on. There's nothing significant in here.
If my memory serves, the Jedi Council sent Mace Windu to arrest Chancellor Palpatine on suspicion of being a Sith. Was there a law of the Republic against Sithery?
- If not, it certainly casts a shadow on the Jedi as "protectors of the Old Republic". Just what were they trying to protect: the notion of the Republic created within their unelected, secretive body?
- If so, it was a disturbing measure of illiberalism for the Republic. Was it illegal for anybody to channel anger and fear into accomplishment and power, or were those emotions illegal only when used to engineer a faux civil war?
2 comments:
There was some chatter about how the Chancellor had exceeded the term limit because of some temporary War Powers extension. SeeGalactic Senate Resolution "Misa thinka the Chancellor should have moi moi power" introduced by Senator Binks. Perhaps the Jedi had some form of Galactic Constitutional authority to arrest the Chancellor to bring him up on charges of illegally exceeding his term limits. That said, Master Windu clearly exceeded his authority by attempting to murder the Chancellor. Did Anakin therefore take the legally correct step of cutting of Windu's forearms and pushing him out the window? The legal principal of self-defense is that you are allowed to use a reasonable amount of force to defend another person's life. The question is how much force was reasonable? Was Windu still a threat sans forearms? True he couldn't use a lightsaber, but most of the damage that Windu did was by using his Force-power beat-down to age the Chancellor. Probably the Galactic Supreme Court would have aquitted Anakin as they seem to have a very high standard for conviction. See The People of Naboo v. The Viceroy 637 GS 2345 (long time ago). In any case, the Chancellor clearly is able to make stuff legal.
Of course, the Jedi had been noticing the corruption overtaking the Senate for some time. It was arguably a matter of time before someone made a move against said corruption.
As far as self defense, Anikan only disarmed Windu(so to speak). It was the Emperor that gave the final push out the window with his Force powered lightening.
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