Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by kazen44 1722 days ago
a major difference between continental law and common law is the intent of the law though.

If the court can prove that they did not handle with the intent of the law, it can still be decided that this is fraud. In a common law system this is not possible.

1 comments

Common law is based on precedent and common sense application of the law, so it is generally common law systems which are described as being open to interpretation.
Common sense has nothing to do with common law after a couple generations morph any type of sense a law could have made into something nigh unrecognizable. Go digging through case law in different jurisdictions and marvel at the contradictory interpretations that arise. This is why strategic changes in jurisdiction are a valuable part of litigative strategy.