Complexity and the Law 

This is a quick reaction to this lecture. Thank you for starting the public conversation which I’m sure is a topic among law school students and other legal professionals. I appreciate the distinctions made between regulation, procedures, and criminal codes. Less helpful is the suggestion that we might compare Swiss codes to British and American jurisdiction. I also appreciated the suggestion to use modern tools like podcasting and video to make law clearer to non-legal professionals. The general topic of law is complex reminds me of something I read in one of Robert Caro’s books about Lyndon Johnson: as society become more complex, the power of the Executive branch has also grown with a cadre of lobbyists and professionals dedicated to making and interpreting laws. We could also answer this question using the lens of race, class, and gender. How many pages of the laws on the books are dedicated to controlling women’s bodies and the bodies of people color? I suggest that we can look at the intentions of laws in general. Early laws protected the rich and propertied.

"As Freedom Is a Breakfast Food" (E.E. Cummings) seems to be theme..today 📖📚✒📝

No mention of Lord Denning?

make words

Well this sure seems like a incredibly unconstructive and pointlessness pondering of the complexity of law that won't help anyone actually understand law, and ultimately just serves as lamentations of the current state of the field.

I'm 5 minutes in and so far this is entirely rhetorical. Lots of adjectives and adverbs, no data or evidence. Citing Homer Simpson and the OED. Bailing out.

"The rule of law requires that the law is simple..." Uh, no. We'll have a chance at seeing the rule of law when it's administered by Englishmen who can speak English, and it will help if the law *be* simple.