[autoexec]

> humans found so many ways to nitpick the language and find loopholes that the legal language has evolved to be insanely verbose and specific.

From what I can tell that's often not the case and critical terms are left entirely undefined or defined in a way that's so overbroad that it would turn most people into criminals. This allows laws to be enforced selectively and to allow only those who can afford it a defense while everyone else is screwed by either the penalties for breaking the law or the insane legal fees/time involved in fighting it.

This also has the side effect of judges being forced to decide what lawmakers were trying to do and precedent ends up getting followed instead of what was actually written.

[ljm]

You're right, but would you want a 100% strict society with zero mercy? Iron fist?

[autoexec]

No, I've heard the argument that draconian enforcement of every law on the books would cause so much backlash that law books would be pruned down very quickly, but that hasn't done much to help with the brain-dead zero tolerance polices some institutions are fond of, and even enforcement of the most necessary laws should be evaluated in context.

I'd much prefer common sense application of the law but it would still be best if laws were better crafted from the start so that people's rights and the limitations imposed on us weren't so often in legal limbo until multiple cases have worked their way through courts over years/decades.

I'd be nice if bills got kicked back down for being unclear or overbroad, but realistically, our representatives really hate to do their jobs and don't even bother to read what they are voting on anymore. Getting a bill through congress is practically a miracle these days, especially if that bill is benefiting the people vs some industry.

[pixl97]

There is no such thing as common sense application of the law because, seemingly, there is no such thing as common sense.

The world is not a simple and easily defined place. We see this in computer code all the time. It can start out simple, but humans both want and need things added. These added things can conflict. People can exploit things in complex manners that no one previously thought of which then needs further updates. Complexity never goes down it increases over time.

[macintux]

> Complexity never goes down it increases over time.

Recent discussion of Tog’s Paradox: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41913437