There are many legal traditions in the world, and most of them (both by number, volume of territory, amount of people governed, etc) take the opposite approach.

There are many legal traditions in the world, and most of them (both by number, volume of territory, amount of people governed, etc) take the opposite approach. Only a very narrow English line of black letter law that ascribes to the black letter above all else... and even in that system a completely twinned system of courts allowed for ethical adjustments to law through the courts of equity. Most continental systems of law and currently standard constitutional constructions provide very clear, very codified release valves for situations in which the written law is bullshit. Which is often.