2005
The year in which the significant part of this fantasy takes place is 2045. However before discussing the events of that period we need to briefly review some events that took place in the early part of the twenty-first century. In July 2005, responding to intense international pressure, the Australian Government over-rode the Northern Territory mandatory goal sentence legislation and restored the power of magistrates to determine the penalties they considered appropriate in particular circumstances. The bulk of the pressure on the Australian Government resulted from resolutions passed in the UN condemning mandatory sentencing: the UN undoubtedly had been influenced by two further deaths in custody in the later part of 2004.

The evening of the day that the bill over-riding the state legislation was passed by the Australian Government the Australian Broadcasting Commission radio program, PM (sponsored by the then fully independent telecommunications company, Telstra) interviewed two Northern Territory magistrates, Andrew Alfred Able and Bernard Barry Baker.

ABC-PM: "Mr Able would you like to comment on the procedure taken today by the Federal Government with respect to over-riding the N.T. mandatory sentence legislation?"

AA: "You can understand that this action has been a great relief to me. Under Northern Territory law, but against my better judgement, I had been obliged to order goal sentences for several individuals, including to my great sorrow, one who last year committed suicide in the Alice Springs police cells."

ABC-PM: "And Mr Baker, would you like to add to your colleague's comments?

BB: "I am one of the few fortunate magistrates that had no cases presented to me that fell under the jurisdiction of the mandatory sentencing law. It is of course a load off my mind that I shall never be placed in the position that Andrew has been. I would like to add that it is also pleasing to see that moves towards the Draft Reconciliation Statement and the Apology to the Aboriginal People are still progressing."

ABC-PM: "Thank you, Mr Able and Mr Baker. For information on our next item we contacted the Treasurer, who told us he wished to say that there should be no comment on his comment of no comment. However the opposition spokes..."

2045
The year is 2045, the UN is well on the way of becoming a world government, or as some would have it, a world dictatorship. The UN has gained power because of support from a diversity of organizations: governments, multinationals and NGOs. Many presidents and prime ministers have found it expedient to avoid responsibilities by handing power and control over to the UN, reminiscent of the manner that they handed control of infrastructure to private companies in the late nineteen hundreds. Manufacturing conglomerates are pleased to be able to deal with an organisation with an apparently insatiable appetite for expensive products. Toyota, for example, sells 78% of its top of the range World Cruisers to the UN and other NGOs for the use of their officers. The Organisation of Initial Peoples, OIP, have found that they can make substantive gains in redressing past wrongs by using the UN Crimes Against Humanity Act, CAHA. (Pronounced "ca-ha", though often referred to as the "caught-ya act")

The CAHA has been structured using the legal model implemented in Nuremberg Tribunal. This tribunal had been established after World War II by the Allies to try alleged war criminals [1]. Because the CAHA lends legitimacy to UN activities the OIP receives political and financial support from an amazingly diverse range of sources and has been vigourous and successful in pressing actions under the act.

In fact two past Australian magistrates, Andrew Alfred Able (age 75) and Bernard Barry Baker (age 78) have been charged under the CAHA. Able has been charged with "the application of injustice resulting in death" and Baker has been charged with "being a member of a criminal organisation". Able is to be tried first.

Now in 2045, if Able is found guilty the prosecution in the Baker trial may well argue that, by implication, the "organization", viz the collection of Northern Territory magistrates, is a criminal organisation under the CAHA and Baker is therefore guilty regardless of the nature of his activities in that organization.

Able's defence council is most likely to contend that:
(i) Able was performing his duties as a member of a legally constituted government organization and
(ii) that the structure and laws of that organization permitted him no option but to sentence those found guilty to predefined prison terms, regardless of his own views of the injustice of the sentence.

This strategy, the so called Nuremberg defence [2], failed at Nuremberg in 1945. It shall be interesting to how effective it is in 2045.