Check out the caption of a criminal case sometime. All are similar. State v. So-And-So; forever and always the left side of the “v” denotes the state. Yet, in all the criminal cases I have handled, I have never met the state. Indeed, I never can and I never will. The state is, in the very best sense of the term, a legal fiction. It is a necessary fiction.
The state has the power to take away a person’s freedom. In some circumstances we permit it to kill. What distinguishes the state’s exercise of these powers from those of a street gang is the cloak of lawful authority. This cloak is defined by the rule of law, which we sometimes call a handmaiden of justice.
