4 ms·
Oh, it is absolutely wild, which I don't think is a very good characteristic for a legal system, especially one where the rule is that 'ignorance of the law is
by marcus0x62 3y ago
Oh, it is absolutely wild, which I don't think is a very good characteristic for a legal system, especially one where the rule is that 'ignorance of the law is not a defense'.
- ben_w 3y agoI think we need a new take on that phrase, something like "ignorance of the law must not be a reasonable defence" — when the law is too complex for most people to understand, it is vulnerable to capricious enforcement, malicious compliance, and unwitting everyday violations being held against the politically undesirable. Not only do I have absolutely no idea how to get from here to there, I also assume the degree of simplification I desire — to the point that normal people know what's going on most of the time — is the legal equivalent of saying "Twitter doesn't need 6000 employees because Mark Zuckerberg wrote Facebook by himself in college" in a software engineering context, and wrong for much the same reasons.
- marcus0x62 3y agoI think we could start by requiring mens rea for any felony offense.
- TacticalCoder 3y agoOne of my favorite saying is this: "The more numerous the laws, the more corrupt the state" (thousands years old saying and nothing has changed). And, oh boy, do we have many laws. It is by design, to oppress the people.
- vasco 3y agoAt work do you also say the legacy projects that are a pain to work with are by design, to oppress the programmers?
- BeFlatXIII 3y agoYou don't even need to consider ALL laws. Just look at the tax code in isolation for good examples.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]