Has our legal system spawned too many laws and too much complexity?

[ttwtt78640]

This is why congress needs to pass a bill to find out what is in it.

And to add the "details" to it later. USA, USA, USA...

 

[Slartibartfast]

Jefferson also commented on the complexity and language of the law (see below). We have an overcomplex and voluminous legal system that requires lawyers for the simplest understanding, and to swim through the gauntlet of convolution. In a republic, laws should be understandable to the ordinary citizen.

Thoughts?

This is something the founders got right as I agree with them :mrgreen:

 

[joko104]

You don't get answers from lawyers, you get opinions.

And billed.

It is NO defense to show you were following your lawyer's advice.

 

[cpwill]

The tax code alone is so massive and convuluted that not even the IRS fully understands it.

As for the rest of the damn thing...

...Boston civil-liberties lawyer Harvey Silverglate calls his new book "Three Felonies a Day," referring to the number of crimes he estimates the average American now unwittingly commits because of vague laws. New technology adds its own complexity, making innocent activity potentially criminal...

As Mr. Silverglate writes, "Since the New Deal era, Congress has delegated to various administrative agencies the task of writing the regulations," even as "Congress has demonstrated a growing dysfunction in crafting legislation that can in fact be understood." Prosecutors identify defendants to go after instead of finding a law that was broken and figuring out who did it. Expect more such prosecutions as Washington adds regulations...

For the vast number of interactions with the State, we no longer really live under Rule of Law, but rather under Rule of Man. Freedom - it was nice while it lasted.

 

[cpwill]

This is something the founders got right as I agree with them :mrgreen:

Fantastic. Are you going to rescind any support you may have given to the unintellegible, 2,000+ page regulatory nightmare known as the Affordable Care Act?

 

[Slartibartfast]

Fantastic. Are you going to rescind any support you may have given to the unintellegible, 2,000+ page regulatory nightmare known as the Affordable Care Act?

The act itself is probably ok in concept, I do wish our laws were simpler though. I think the legal profession itself is subject to considerable scope creep though as people are always trying to figure out ways around any laws and the increasing complexity is people trying to make laws air tight.

 

[d0gbreath]

The tax code alone is so massive and convuluted that not even the IRS fully understands it.

As for the rest of the damn thing...




For the vast number of interactions with the State, we no longer really live under Rule of Law, but rather under Rule of Man. Freedom - it was nice while it lasted.

I'm quite sure that freedom was long gone before I was born.

 

[blaxshep]

The laywers that draft these things know that the more verbage they use the more loopholes they create.

The constitution was only 4 pages long, no legislation should be more than that.

 

[Gawain]

Every time they pass a law they take away a freedom. Its come to the point where almost everyone does something against the law at least once a year lol. Of course you may not know it.

 

[wellwisher]

Laws create jobs for lawyers, similar to the way snow creates jobs for plows. The more snow you have the, more plows you need. Unlike snow, which falls by the whims of nature, laws are created by the very groups who benefit by more laws. This situation is like plow drivers, having access to snow making machines, so there is always new snow to plow.

Complexity in law is there to create the illusion you need additional lawyer jobs. If the plow industry could convince you, they needed to plow in a convuluted way, you may get used to two plow guys for each driveway.

I tend to think there is a conflict of interest when one free market group can fix the market, so that same group always seems to benefit; anti-trust. Why not have business leaders decide the rules of the business market? because they would also fix the game in their favor.

Criminal lawyers benefit by increasing the number of criminals. This can be done with lawyers replacing moral laws with civil liberties. It can also be done by simply creating new laws to define new categories of criminals. In NYC, Nanny Bloomberg created big gulp criminals for the lawyers.

It is not coincidental that lawyers contribute more to the democratic party, since this is the party of regulation and law. Every regulation, no matter how stupid, is a potential new crimimal needing a lawyer.