As a policy lawyer and a social sciences/law & economics nut, I’m happy to see the legal system being discussed in this community—I think it gets far too little attention given how it shapes the institutions and even the culture around us.
I am a bit perplexed by your reference to the common law system though—how does that relate to the idea of “just let go design”?
Under common law, lawmakers give up control over the details of the law. Details of interpretation and application, all the little edge cases, precise definitions… that’s decided mainly by courts.
The closest analogue among the other examples is declarative vs imperative programming: think of lawmakers as the programmers, and courts as the compiler. Just as programmers give up control over the details of their program’s execution to the compiler, lawmakers give up control over the details of the law to the courts.
As a policy lawyer and a social sciences/law & economics nut, I’m happy to see the legal system being discussed in this community—I think it gets far too little attention given how it shapes the institutions and even the culture around us.
I am a bit perplexed by your reference to the common law system though—how does that relate to the idea of “just let go design”?
Under common law, lawmakers give up control over the details of the law. Details of interpretation and application, all the little edge cases, precise definitions… that’s decided mainly by courts.
The closest analogue among the other examples is declarative vs imperative programming: think of lawmakers as the programmers, and courts as the compiler. Just as programmers give up control over the details of their program’s execution to the compiler, lawmakers give up control over the details of the law to the courts.