Hitler's Table Talk

EXPERT KNOWLEDGE OF COURTS 643
and at the same time makes a recommendation for mercy, it
places me in an embarrassing position. It is not a situation in
which the Legislature should be called upon to intervene. If
the code of justice is sound, and the judge is thoroughly conversant
with it, then the latter, in a doubtful case, would undoubtedly
consult his Ministers before passing sentence. There
must be the closest collaboration between the State incarnate
and the Body Judicial.
Instruction in the law schools must be drastically revised. In
my opinion it is vital that a judge should acquire considerable
experience of life before he is called upon to accept the responsibilities
of his position. No one, for example, should be appointed
as a judge who has not had previous administrative experience
in the Party.
A judge must have profound personal experience of the
matters in which he will be called upon to pass judgment.
Present conditions offer him no opportunity of acquiring the
insight which is a pre-requisite to the successful accomplishment
of his duties. Another prerequisite is that he should have
a general knowledge of the various activities—industrial and
others—of society. I have known a motor-car case in which
the presiding judge thought that the speedometer was actuated
by gas! All he knew about a motor was that, somewhere or
other, water, oil and petrol had to be put into it. One has no
right to expect a sound verdict from a man in such a position.
The expert whom he calls in to his assistance may well be some
old rogue, bent solely on prolonging the period of his employment
by abundant use of technical argument and phraseology.
To me it appears very desirable that a host of petty causes
should be heard, not by a judge de carrière, but by honorary
magistrates, versed and experienced in the ordinary ways of life.
A very large number of minor cases are dealt with in this way
within the Party, and it should not be difficult to find men endowed
with sufficient wisdom to deal with these small causes.
I think that the lawyer, as well as the judge, should be a
servant of the State. I am quite satisfied that a judge weighs the
facts placed before him most conscientiously, and I see no reason
why a lawyer in advising his client as to his best line of defence
should not act in a like manner. I have had considerable