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California's constitution alone is over 100 pages, never mind thousands of pages of other legal code as well as precedents. It's not that the laws are so comple
by tomkarlo 8y ago
California's constitution alone is over 100 pages, never mind thousands of pages of other legal code as well as precedents. It's not that the laws are so complex, it's that they have to cover so much it's never going to be feasible for someone not doing it professionally to be an expert on it.
Folks say "you should consult with a lawyer" when the topic is something that's too obscure or marginal to be obvious to a non-lawyer... that doesn't mean the laws are overly complex, just that there are always going to be marginal situations.
- alkonaut 8y agoThis is why common law annoys me. Possible recedent from any tiny case any time? That’s sure to help only one thing: an industry of legal workers since no one can actually know the law without doing endless research. I absolutely love how our laws are relatively small, how precedent is from the Supreme Court only, and how most people don’t have any contact with lawyers in their entire life.
- tomkarlo 8y agoSorry, are you talking about the US or another country? We have elements of common law in the US code, and you can definitely have binding precedent that doesn't involve the Supreme Court. As for most folks not having any contact with lawyers... I'm not sure I've met any adult who hasn't.
- alkonaut 8y agoSorry if I was unclear, I’m talking about how US law annoys me (it does affect me despite not living in the US, e.g in terms of prices on goods from legal overhead in the US) and how I like that my non-US country has precedent from a Supreme Court and no one knows a lawyer because there almost aren’t any (probably much for that reason - law is rather simple)