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There should be explicit legal mechanisms to revert any temorary measures and as many measures as possible should be viewed as temporary. For example, every ex

There should be explicit legal mechanisms to revert any temorary measures and as many measures as possible should be viewed as temporary. For example, every extension needs to be vetted by an independent court and by default it is revoked immediately upon failing to renew.

more_corn 2y ago
This proposal solves many societal problems. LGTM please merge into master at your earliest convenience.
vundercind 2y ago
This turns e.g. hard won fights for civil liberties and other very-nice-to-have things (parental leave, say, for countries developed enough to have it) into even more of a never-ending battle than they already are.
- bigstrat2003 2y ago
  It seems like that would not necessarily be the case, since not all laws would be temporary. But there would certainly be a push to make controversial things a temporary law.
- krsdcbl 2y ago
  such laws are unlikely to be implemented as temporary measures, which op specifically talks about.
NeoTar 2y ago
I have contemplated whether every law should be explicitly time limited. There are some theoretical arguments for it - all uncontroversial laws (e.g. no murdering) should be renewed, and other laws can be re—evaluated (e.g. a number of US states enacted laws in the 90s preventing under—18s having pagers, which are at best irrelevant today, ignoring all other facts) The trouble is that perhaps our societies are now so polarised we’d never be able to agree to pass uncontroversial legislation without partisan horse trading.
- clcaev 2y ago
  Laws past are often changes to legal code, they often soon have other code intertwined with them. How do you expire code automatically, do all dependent changed also have to expire? How do you track the dependency tree? Horse trading is an aspect of compromise: you want A, I would rather not; I want B, you would rather not; so we agree on A & B.
  - NeoTar 2y ago
    The trouble for me comes where you want A, I also want A, but I claim to want A*, so that I can ‘compromise’ with you to agree A and another policy I want, B.
- brightlancer 2y ago
  Laws that are uncontroversial in one year can become very controversial in another. Is it murder to kill your slave? Is it murder to kill the man breaking into your home at 3AM? Is it murder for the government to kill the man convicted of murder? I think it's a good idea for all laws to have sunsets, though some could be longer than others. In the US, I see federal laws renewed every few years with little public debate, sometimes released to the legislature with little opportunity for them to debate, let alone read and verify changes. > The trouble is that perhaps our societies are now so polarised we’d never be able to agree to pass uncontroversial legislation without partisan horse trading. Again, some things may be more controversial than they appear. When things are uncontroversial, I think there's usually broad agreement to pass it without horse trading. More often, I see something (very) controversial is packaged with the uncontroversial, and the reporting of the situation is biased.

more_corn 2y ago

This proposal solves many societal problems. LGTM please merge into master at your earliest convenience.

vundercind 2y ago

This turns e.g. hard won fights for civil liberties and other very-nice-to-have things (parental leave, say, for countries developed enough to have it) into even more of a never-ending battle than they already are.

bigstrat2003 2y ago
It seems like that would not necessarily be the case, since not all laws would be temporary. But there would certainly be a push to make controversial things a temporary law.
krsdcbl 2y ago
such laws are unlikely to be implemented as temporary measures, which op specifically talks about.

NeoTar 2y ago

I have contemplated whether every law should be explicitly time limited. There are some theoretical arguments for it - all uncontroversial laws (e.g. no murdering) should be renewed, and other laws can be re—evaluated (e.g. a number of US states enacted laws in the 90s preventing under—18s having pagers, which are at best irrelevant today, ignoring all other facts) The trouble is that perhaps our societies are now so polarised we’d never be able to agree to pass uncontroversial legislation without partisan horse trading.

clcaev 2y ago
Laws past are often changes to legal code, they often soon have other code intertwined with them. How do you expire code automatically, do all dependent changed also have to expire? How do you track the dependency tree? Horse trading is an aspect of compromise: you want A, I would rather not; I want B, you would rather not; so we agree on A & B.
- NeoTar 2y ago
  The trouble for me comes where you want A, I also want A, but I claim to want A*, so that I can ‘compromise’ with you to agree A and another policy I want, B.
brightlancer 2y ago
Laws that are uncontroversial in one year can become very controversial in another. Is it murder to kill your slave? Is it murder to kill the man breaking into your home at 3AM? Is it murder for the government to kill the man convicted of murder? I think it's a good idea for all laws to have sunsets, though some could be longer than others. In the US, I see federal laws renewed every few years with little public debate, sometimes released to the legislature with little opportunity for them to debate, let alone read and verify changes. > The trouble is that perhaps our societies are now so polarised we’d never be able to agree to pass uncontroversial legislation without partisan horse trading. Again, some things may be more controversial than they appear. When things are uncontroversial, I think there's usually broad agreement to pass it without horse trading. More often, I see something (very) controversial is packaged with the uncontroversial, and the reporting of the situation is biased.