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From: js2j@mhuxt.UUCP (sonntag)
Newsgroups: net.legal
Subject: How many laws are we subject to?
Message-ID: <449@mhuxt.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 2-Jan-85 16:42:34 EST
Article-I.D.: mhuxt.449
Posted: Wed Jan  2 16:42:34 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 3-Jan-85 04:45:33 EST
Distribution: net
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I recently wanted to find out if something was legal locally or not, and the
only way I could think of finding out was to post to this group.  Does anyone
have any idea how many laws the average individual must currently avoid
breaking?  My best guestimate is probably low, but I'll say a few thousand.
Now, considering these facts: 1.) There is no obvious way for the average
citizen to find out whether some action would break the law, 2.) the average
citizen must obey thousands of laws, 3.) If you break a law you didn't know
about, you receive the full penalty anyway.  Doesn't it all seem loaded
against us somehow?  We have to obey thousands of laws which we couldn't
possibly learn all of, and if we break one in ignorance, 'Ignorance of the
law is no excuse.'  
    It sounds like a system set up by Swift!  I'm sure it was easier back
when laws were fewer and closer to what could be considered 'right' and
'wrong', but now, a persons intuitive idea of what is right and wrong
bears little resemblance to the unknown laws which he must obey.
    Could some 'fix' be made to stop this injustice?  Let's see - get rid
of all unnecessary laws -- but which laws are unnecessary?, and who decides?
Place some arbitrary limit to the number of state, local, and federal laws
which can apply to individuals?
    Can it truly be 'right' to prosecute someone for disobeying a law which
they never heard of, and which isn't about something which most people
consider a moral issue?  If I get a ticket for running a stop sign, and show
the judge a few photographs of said stop sign obstructed by trees and brush,
I guess I'd get off, since I didn't know there was a stop sign there.  If
I get arrested for carrying my children in my camper while driving through
Georgia, and I tell the judge that I didn't know that was illegal in Georgia,
I'll still be penalized.

Jeff Sonntag
ihnp4!mhuxt!js2j
-- 
Jeff Sonntag
ihnp4!mhuxt!js2j
   "Hey, my new .signature file really works!"