| > not commit crimes If you take the US as an example (I assume you're American), then did you know that the US Supreme Court doesn't actually know how many laws apply at a particular time to a particular person[1]? The US code has an immense amount of laws that are all equally legally binding, but have different levels of "obviousness" as "don't murder people". If a US Supreme Court judge cannot be sure what laws apply in any given case, what chance does a layperson have to understand the tens of thousands of federal crimes in the US? For instance 16 U.S.C 3372 (the Lacey Act): > It is unlawful for any person [...] to import, export, transport, sell, receive, acquire, or purchase any fish or wildlife or plant taken, possessed, transported, or sold in violation of any law, treaty, or regulation of the United States or in violation of any Indian tribal law So if you have ever bought or been gifted a fish, animal or plant that at any point broke Indian tribal law (even if you didn't know about it, even if it wasn't the law where you received it, and even if the plant or fish is legally farmed and sold in another area) you have broken a federal law and you're now a criminal. In short, "don't commit crimes" is not as simple as you may think in all cases. You even have cases where the US government has retroactively applied new laws (in violation of the charter of human rights) for things that were not crimes at the time (such as "copyright infringement" for a work that used to be public domain). Very few criminals were tried under these strange laws, but they are still just as illegal as more common crimes. [1]: https://youtu.be/d-7o9xYp7eE?t=279 |