Why do the laws of adjudication — civil justice — take precedence over all the other commandments in the Torah? Rabbi Shimon gave a deceptively simple answer: because adjudication creates peace.
When two people have a dispute, strife exists between them. The longer the dispute festers, the more it poisons their relationship and the community around them. But once a ruling is given — once a judge decides the case — peace is restored between the parties. Even the loser accepts the verdict because it came through a recognized process of law.
Rabbi Shimon found proof in the words of Yithro, Moses' father-in-law. (Exodus 18:23): "If you do this thing" — meaning, if you establish a system of judges and courts — "then all this people will come to their place in peace." Yithro understood that a nation without functioning courts is a nation at war with itself. Justice is not one commandment among many. It is the commandment that makes all other commandments possible.
This is why the laws of adjudication appear immediately after the revelation at Sinai. God gave the Ten Commandments, and the very next section of Torah deals with courts, judges, and civil disputes. The ordering is not random. A society must have a system for resolving conflict before it can function well enough to observe anything else. Peace is the precondition for Torah, and adjudication is the precondition for peace.