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It's only insane if you think that every new law makes something illegal. A law can do just about anything: clarify or update the language of existing laws, cre

It's only insane if you think that every new law makes something illegal. A law can do just about anything: clarify or update the language of existing laws, create or amend a budget, add or revoke a subsidy for a product or economic activity, be a statement of purpose, or allocate funds for infrastructure projects. In other words, just claiming that "40,000" laws is insane doesn't really mean much. Governments work by way of laws, so this metric simply tells me that these governments are active. To determine whether or not their activity is insane, one must investigate the types of laws being passed.

yew 14y ago
I don't see the word 'illegal' or any permutation thereof in the post you're responding to. Personally, 40,000 additions to the surface area of the legal system qualifies as pretty crazy under just about every circumstance. Not all government activity requires a new law.
boboblong 14y ago
The problem is that one tenet of our legal system is that ignorance of the law is no excuse for breaking it. Such a tenet is absurd given the sheer volume of existing law and the rate at which new laws are being created. If we want to keep the tenet, every citizen should be issued a single book of a reasonable length that accurately summarizes which kinds of behavior are legal and which are not. Then, if someone is accused of breaking some obscure law, a demonstration that the accused could have reasonably concluded that his behavior was not illegal based on an accurate reading of the standard summary should be sufficient for acquittal. You can't have it both ways. The law should serve the interests of man, not vice versa. No one should have to fear going out into the world and trying to accomplish something because he might inadvertently run afoul of the law. Such a state of affairs benefits no one but lawyers.

yew 14y ago

I don't see the word 'illegal' or any permutation thereof in the post you're responding to. Personally, 40,000 additions to the surface area of the legal system qualifies as pretty crazy under just about every circumstance. Not all government activity requires a new law.

boboblong 14y ago

The problem is that one tenet of our legal system is that ignorance of the law is no excuse for breaking it. Such a tenet is absurd given the sheer volume of existing law and the rate at which new laws are being created. If we want to keep the tenet, every citizen should be issued a single book of a reasonable length that accurately summarizes which kinds of behavior are legal and which are not. Then, if someone is accused of breaking some obscure law, a demonstration that the accused could have reasonably concluded that his behavior was not illegal based on an accurate reading of the standard summary should be sufficient for acquittal. You can't have it both ways. The law should serve the interests of man, not vice versa. No one should have to fear going out into the world and trying to accomplish something because he might inadvertently run afoul of the law. Such a state of affairs benefits no one but lawyers.