Liator quotes from Star Trek: The Next Generation

Liator

So, we are not yet as advanced as they are. And since you are advanced in other ways, too, I suggest you use your superior powers to rescue the Wesley boy. We will record him as a convicted criminal out of our reach...an advanced person who luckily escaped the barbarism of this backward little world.

They are called mediators and they are needed only in one place each day.

Liator

The punishment zone, an area that's selected for a period of time.

Tasha Yar

It's a completely random selection?

Liator

No one but our mediators know what place or for how long. We're very proud of the wisdom of our ancestors. No person ever knows where or when a zone will be.

And so no one risks death.

Worf

Death?

By breaking any law.

Tasha Yar

Wait, explain this.

Liator

Only one punishment for any crime.

Worf

Anyone who commits any crime in the punishment zone dies?

Tasha Yar

What of justice to Wesley? Does he deserve to die?

Liator

[DELETED LINE] That is a moot issue, unfortunately. The law remains the law, regardless of whose favor it works in. Thus, the question becomes...Where is justice, save in equality?

Jean-Luc Picard

I'm truly sorry, Liator; but I must have justice for my people, too. Transporter Room, energize...Transporter Room, come in!

We can't energize the beam, sir. Everything checks out, but we're getting no results.

God has prevented your escape.

Beverly Crusher

Then your God is unfair. My son had no warning that his act was criminal.

We cannot allow ignorance of the law to become a defense.

Jean-Luc Picard

I don't know how to communicate this, or even if it is possible, but the question of justice has concerned me greatly of late. And I say, to any creature who may be listening, there can be no justice so long as laws are absolute. Life itself is an exercise in exceptions.

William Riker

When has justice ever been as simple as a rule book?

Liator

[DELETED LINE] For us, the effectiveness of justice has always gone hand-in-hand with its simplicity.

[DELETED LINE] Ever since any of us can remember, there have been two basic types...those who live by the law, and those who die by it. Thus, the question becomes, How can there be justice when laws are anything but consistent?

[DELETED LINE] Making one exception, regardless of circumstances, would compel us to make more...and then still more, until the law became -- we believe you have a phrase for it -- until it became "nothing but words on paper". [sneers] Evidently, your idea of a just legal system is one so complicated that nobody can be punished for anything.