If the laws created in the past with intelligent people, why lawyers find loopholes on it?
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Spirit of the Law vs the Letter of the Law
So common law is along the principal of you’ve done an injury to someone -> they can prove it -> you’re guilty. It’s far more about the intent of the law. The more specifics you write into law the more judges (and juries) are forced to look at the letter of the law. Now in this Information Age we focus almost exclusively on the letter of the law – meaning one misquote or something left out or vague language and all of a sudden the law is not enforceable anymore.
Perverse Incentives
No matter how well intentioned the law that you write is it normally gives rise to some form of opposite action or perverse incentive. For instance you want to reduce immigration so you introduce a law to make it much more difficult to apply for immigration. This gives rise to the perverse incentive that businesses will start employing more illegal immigrants for cheaper and simply pay the fines if they are ever caught.
Deliberate Loopholes
While some of us might be naïve enough to think that the politicians that write these laws are beyond reproach let’s be real and accept that politicians often have a hefty self interest in the laws that they write. In general new laws or new amendment starts out with good intentions but as the process goes on so the law is manipulated to often leave deliberate loopholes in place. The more honest politicians are normally worn down by time being a factor and the necessity to comprise (i.e. be political) to get the law passed.
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