The article seemed to be about “should legislation requiring internet access at a certain speed to be made more available require a higher speed than it currently does?” Yes, it is true that the means of increasing the speed required would be modifying a legal definition.
However, the debate over “should law X define Y to include Z” always seems to be about “should law X apply to Z” and not “does Z really count as Y”, and people saying “Z is/isn’t Y” tend to immediately follow that with “if Z is/isn’t defined as Y, that would lead to implications.” Take, for example, the piracy debate. People counting piracy as theft say things like “if piracy isn’t classified as theft, then it won’t be prosecuted, which will lead to fewer people spending money on media”, and people who say that piracy isn’t theft tend to say things like “classifying piracy and peer-to-peer file sharing as theft leads to treating these poor teenagers who just wanted to make CDs for their friends as criminals and sending them to jail”.
It looked like a debate over whether legislation should be changed by way of changing a definition, but I wouldn’t call noticing that a special rationality skill.
The article seemed to be about “should legislation requiring internet access at a certain speed to be made more available require a higher speed than it currently does?” Yes, it is true that the means of increasing the speed required would be modifying a legal definition.
However, the debate over “should law X define Y to include Z” always seems to be about “should law X apply to Z” and not “does Z really count as Y”, and people saying “Z is/isn’t Y” tend to immediately follow that with “if Z is/isn’t defined as Y, that would lead to implications.” Take, for example, the piracy debate. People counting piracy as theft say things like “if piracy isn’t classified as theft, then it won’t be prosecuted, which will lead to fewer people spending money on media”, and people who say that piracy isn’t theft tend to say things like “classifying piracy and peer-to-peer file sharing as theft leads to treating these poor teenagers who just wanted to make CDs for their friends as criminals and sending them to jail”.
It looked like a debate over whether legislation should be changed by way of changing a definition, but I wouldn’t call noticing that a special rationality skill.