The Loving Programmer’s Operating Instructions clearly tell us “Thou shalt not bear false witness”. But, we do. There are few of us who will tell a lie as blatant as “The sky is green.”, but there is a tendency to shade, equivocate, and distort that makes lots and lots of lawyers necessary.
Napoleon believed that “Lawyers are a necessary part of civilized society.” At the same time, he developed the “Code Napoleon” to simplify the law and reduce the shadings, equivocations, and distortions that had built into a towering, tottering structure whose collapse threatened France.
Our own laws have reached a similar point.
Too many laws based on too many precedents too numerous to comprehend brings societies down. Babylon, Egypt, Rome, and other long-term empires collapsed because of the confusion caused by impenetrable jungles of laws through which no one could make meaningful progress.
Too many laws provide cover for judicial corruption. A plethora of precedents allow any judge to find reasons to reach any desired decision. Bribes prompt searches for precedent that do not serve justice, but personal gain.
Both litigants know what’s going on in such a case. One may be happy about the resultant decision, but the other is outraged. When there is so much outrage that people can no longer tolerate injustice, they want substantive changes in their state. If corruption continues, constraints against revolution are loosened. Then, automatically, the most vicious in the nation seize control. Over time, and much suffering, the dominant ethos may be able to reassert itself.
The operable word is “may”.
