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REVIEWING MISCARRIAGES OF JUSTICE:
THE PARDON REINCARNATED
Neville Trendle
At first blush, the pardon appears to be something of an anachronism. Yet despite
its antiquity it has played a unique role in the delivery of justice. While it is the
exercise of the sovereign’s prerogative of mercy and it “begins where legal rights
end,”
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it also marks the conflation of both mercy and justice. It has provided a
means for clemency and for reviewing an injustice where there is no other
remedy. Its international utility is illustrated by a survey that confirmed the
existence of the pardoning power in some form in every one of more than 90
jurisdictions that were the subject of the study
http://www.isrcl.org/Papers/2004/TrendleJustice.pdf
