No one likes "rules are rules" as justification. But, (again, not a lawyer) you also get some equally absurd situations with the "precedent is precedent (as lon

No one likes "rules are rules" as justification. But, (again, not a lawyer) you also get some equally absurd situations with the "precedent is precedent (as long as you can afford a lawyer to establish it)" situation in the US. I really don't mean to imply that one system is better than the other. My point is that they both suck in different ways, and they both need to be fixed in different ways. You treat any social system like a machine and people will get caught in the gears.