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Fortunately the legal system is flexible enough to accommodate questions like this, both with interpretations of the law and with juries to determine the facts.
by mgraczyk 3y ago
Fortunately the legal system is flexible enough to accommodate questions like this, both with interpretations of the law and with juries to determine the facts.
This isn't a new problem caused by emoji. You could make a similar argument about conversations had over the phone, turn signals, even physical contact.
- foobiekr 3y agoYeah. It's amazing that people in technology so often are unable to comprehend that the legal system is not a bunch of statements where debating the meaning of words or symbols or obscure things like rendering somehow are magic to bypass the law's intent. The simple answer is, it's not "what it looked like to the other person" it's the intent of the author.
- mgraczyk 3y agoA nitpick, but for your latter point it depends on the question. In some cases it's the intent that matters, but the law often tries to avoid questions about actual intent because that's too difficult to figure out. Instead the question might hinge on what a reasonable person would have thought, or what the victim actually thought.
- prepend 3y ago> often tries to avoid questions about actual intent because that's too difficult to figure out. Of course the law tries to avoid it. But that’s sometimes impossible, thus disagreements and trials and judges and whatnot. It’s not like ambiguity causes everything to crash. It just requires judgement that usually gets settled before it gets to court.
- konschubert 3y agoYep. What Color are your bits.
- stickfigure 3y agoYou have an optimistic view of the legal system. Sure intent matters, but you may still get arrested, spend many nights in jail, get fired from your job, and spend thousands of dollars on legal fees and bail while the system figures out your intent.
- fnordpiglet 3y agoI’d note in America many nights can easily mean many years in jail without a trial.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- doubleg72 3y agoSouth America maybe?
- nicup12345689 3y agoOnly anglo-tard, 'guess the intent' legal systems. "Is he a person having bad thoughts?"