philip k. howard speaks sense into a senseless, out of control legal minefield

I've just finished listening to this (http://www.ted.com/talks/philip_howard.html) talk on TED.

I completely agree with his assessment of the current state of the legal system, and how it has deteriorated into something that paralyses with fear, not something that facilitates freedom and justice.

He argues for a simplification of the law, so that people can trust it again, so that people can internalise it and exercise their best judgment on how it plays out in everyday life for themselves.

Here are some notes that I took whilst listening to it; just a few soundbites. I recommend listening to it, thought. 20 mins of quality.

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law is a powerful driver of human behaviour.

law needs to be simplified; it has become so dense. daily activities of normal people are affected.

law can either be for freedom or become a minefield.

people no longer feel free to act on their best judgement.

we've been trained to look at every case based on individual rights. to squint into this legal microscope.

formula for paralysis, not freedom.

1. judge law on its effects on broader society, not individual situations

the rise of due process leads to less order! 78% of teachers have been threatened with law suits by their students. corrosion of authority.

2. trust is esential. distrust skews behaviour towards failure.

for law to be the platform for freedom, people have to trust it.
drives people from the smart place of the brain, to the thin venir of logic.
if you make people self-conscious of their judgments, they will make worse judgements.
'hell, we ain't got no rules around here, we got a job to do!' edison

how do you restore trust?
3. law must set boundaries protecting an open field of freedom, not intercede in all disputes.
freedom has a formal structures.
law sets frontiers not artificially drawn within which men will be invioble.

value judgments and social norms.

4. we have to simplify the law. to be simply enough to internalise it in their daily choices. migrate from complex, to simple.

we have to restore the authority to judges to interpret the law.
humanise it.

it doesn't mean those in authority can do whatever they want.
you can't run a society by the lowest common denominator.

authority is not the enemy of freedom.

a free society requires red lights and green lights; otherwise it descends into gridlock.