[sofixa]

It's always funny to me when people cite old American case law and try to wrangle their heads around how that can apply to a situation which the case's participants couldn't have possibly imagined. Shouldn't the correct way to do this be new legislation being created after consulting interest groups to answer the modern problems which exist due to modern realities, like what the EU is doing? It seems much more sensible of an approach instead of wondering how a 15th century ruling's ruler would have applied his thinking about something they couldn't even dream of.

[lazide]

Interest groups == lobbyists in this case. Which might explain some of the American hesitation.

[sofixa]

Well yes, you need to ask representatives of the people that will be impacted by a law what the impact will be, assess expert opinions, etc. Lobbying isn't only the American political bribery system, there's legitimate reasons behind it.

[lazide]

Of course! And that those with the deepest pockets are able to afford to have the most convincing folks spend the most time waiting for an opening in the various Representatives calendars is not surprising, and only natural.

That it often results in them getting an equivalent mindshare (or more) of the Representatives views is also not surprising, and only natural.

It doesn't inspire warm fuzzies in those too busy working to survive though.

[flextheruler]

Your government class didn’t cover common law versus case law?

[sofixa]

You probably mean common law, also sometimes known as case law, vs civil law which traces it's origins to the Napoleonic civil code, and which is used in all of the world outside of the former British colonies.

My law classes did cover common law, yes, but not favourably(can you guess I come from a civil law country?). Sounds like a system that made sense in 15th century Britain, but is quite the complex beast with many issues nowadays when it doesn't need to be.

However that still doesn't answer my original question, why is there no new legislation to cover the newly existing scenarios talked about? It seems to me that even the UK does that at least for some things, and they're the original common law country.

[singleshot_]

> Sounds like a system that made sense in 15th century Britain

Eleventh.