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> Law really needs to evolve. When I see a wish for something to 'evolve', I generally can substitute "get society to devote an order of magnitude more resourc

> Law really needs to evolve. When I see a wish for something to 'evolve', I generally can substitute "get society to devote an order of magnitude more resources to," and arrive at a better description of what's actually being wished for. Education needs to evolve, our prison system needs to evolve. But the signs of evolution are already there. Arbitration is precisely a legal evolution. Private prisons and schools are evolutions of their respective institutions as well. The problem is that they don't solve the resource scarcity that is really wished for. People generally don't want to settle for an evolved solution, they want someone else to pay so that they can take advantage of the one that's already there that we know does a good job. The only fix here is to have fewer, but better institutions, and for them to focus their efforts on engineering, not innovation. What's a model for introducing private entities into public spheres that actually drives better outcomes? I would bet that Europe offers many interesting examples to base policy on, but our current political climate seems too caustic to make progress on.

airstrike 8y ago
IANAL but > > Law really needs to evolve. > When I see a wish for something to 'evolve', I generally can substitute "get society to devote an order of magnitude more resources to," and arrive at a better description of what's actually being wished for. The thing about Law is that you can just look at what other countries are doing and think about whether that's an improvement over the status quo. In certain jurisdictions (I'd wager in most developed countries), relationships that are inherently unequal (i.e. in which one party is significantly more vulnerable than the other) -- such as customer vs. company or employee vs. employer -- are protected by rules that are also unequal in nature. The burden of proof usually lies on the stronger party, and certain protections are awarded only to the weaker party. The underlying principle that companies and people must be treated differently when contracting also applies to other interactions. In certain jurisdictions, EULAs are virtually worthless because you can't assume a reasonable customer would read all the legalese in those documents, let alone understand it. Therefore, even if users click or sign a piece of paper saying "they agree and understand", that acknowledgement is worthless. Instead, they are judged against what you'd expect a "reasonable, average person" to believe constitutes appropriate use. Again, IANAL so I'm being very vague on details, but my point is that we don't necessarily need "to devote an order of magnitude more resources". And for that matter, even if we did, that doesn't mean it wouldn't be preferable to do so.

airstrike 8y ago

IANAL but > > Law really needs to evolve. > When I see a wish for something to 'evolve', I generally can substitute "get society to devote an order of magnitude more resources to," and arrive at a better description of what's actually being wished for. The thing about Law is that you can just look at what other countries are doing and think about whether that's an improvement over the status quo. In certain jurisdictions (I'd wager in most developed countries), relationships that are inherently unequal (i.e. in which one party is significantly more vulnerable than the other) -- such as customer vs. company or employee vs. employer -- are protected by rules that are also unequal in nature. The burden of proof usually lies on the stronger party, and certain protections are awarded only to the weaker party. The underlying principle that companies and people must be treated differently when contracting also applies to other interactions. In certain jurisdictions, EULAs are virtually worthless because you can't assume a reasonable customer would read all the legalese in those documents, let alone understand it. Therefore, even if users click or sign a piece of paper saying "they agree and understand", that acknowledgement is worthless. Instead, they are judged against what you'd expect a "reasonable, average person" to believe constitutes appropriate use. Again, IANAL so I'm being very vague on details, but my point is that we don't necessarily need "to devote an order of magnitude more resources". And for that matter, even if we did, that doesn't mean it wouldn't be preferable to do so.