August 29, 2014

  • plurimae leges corruptissima re publica

    The above link is an article about the rash of governmental -> corporate regulatory actions that have resulted in big payouts to governments from corporations.

    It's an interesting time we live in, where companies are paying out such large sums to opaque agencies who then use those funds in just as opaque a fashion. These are not trifling sums, and, not for the first time, I despair at the condition of this body politic.

    Tacitus' observation:

    "Plurimae leges corruptissima re publica" states that the greater the number of laws, the more corrupt the politicians. Upon reflection, how can one argue with this?

    Our current legal system consists of a patchwork of intersecting and conflicting rules; some in general agreement, others at odds. The use of precedent is supposed to smooth out legal interpretation, giving predictability to what is and is not acceptable.

    When the number of laws is too great, and complexity of interaction too severe, enforcement becomes selective. The number of persons and time necessary to enforce hundreds of thousands of law beggars reason - it's simply impossible. And selective enforcement leads to chaotic implementation... how is this law at all?

    Or when new laws/regulations are introduced in a haphazard, opaque way, it makes it difficult to even know what will be done to implement them, leading to uncertainty for those who are regulated.

    The author of the above article points out that at present the nearly arbitrary fashion in which the government in the US is approaching corporate "shakedowns" is difficult to distinguish from the way the Chinese government is operating.

    I can't disagree.

    Reliable, consistent, clear regulation and law is what open, transparent society should expect. While law cannot enforce morality, it can provide a framework for more fair treatment in society. Excessive complexity erodes that purpose. While legality does not ensure justice, it's society's best approximation -

    Selective enforcement of laws ensures that many quasi legal practices go unnoticed, which is also hardly fair.

    Straightforward, clear, enforced laws reduces the opportunity for corruption. Excessive complexity benefits those in power, who can navigate the vagaries with inside knowledge of the system; and they can confer similar benefits to their allies, friends and associates. Laws and systems only understood by a few is no basis for fair, egalitarian, law based society.

    Tacitus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacitus) understood this in the first century...

    I think the framers of the constitution did as well.

    What happened? :/