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> Almost every time I hear programmers talk about the law arguing that it should be treated like software and be far more precise and absolute than it currently
by mrandish 7y ago
> Almost every time I hear programmers talk about the law arguing that it should be treated like software and be far more precise and absolute than it currently is I'm reminded of this comic
Yep, it's hard. However, there are two things going on. The first is that there are people who are highly motivated to reinterpret or misunderstand a law they don't like or think is wrong. Even when it's pretty damn clear.
The second thing is there are some passages in both the Bill of Rights and the law that aren't as clear as they could be (and not because they're intentionally written that way to provide latitude). I think these are "bugs" that could have been addressed with better drafting. I often ponder how one would re-write the constitution to be more clear, more effective and yet still resilient to change over centuries. It's a hard problem but I think there are certain meta concepts that could be applied that would be net improvements.
- datashow 7y agoAmerican law system does evolve itself through case law. Things which are not clearly defined in the original language are clarified and adjusted through cases. Does it always get everything correct? No. But it's one of the best systems you can get on this planet.
- int_19h 7y agoBy what metric do you judge that system as "best on this planet"?