Terry Reedy <tjre...@udel.edu>: > On 6/4/2016 4:24 AM, Marko Rauhamaa wrote: >> In Finland, it is common for families to have a printed copy of the >> law on the bookshelf. > > How wonderful that 'the law' can fit in a book.
Must be abridged, although I'm not sure. >> Families traditionally sort out things like inheritances without the >> involvement of lawyers. Nowadays, the law is available online, of >> course. > > For free, I presume. I just discovered that the Delaware Code is now > online http://delcode.delaware.gov/index.shtml. Yes, for free. California, too, has posted its laws online. However, the traditions are different in that American laws aren't the whole story: you'll also have to know the precedents. Precedents play a role in Finland, as well, but here laws tend to be more specific and precedents don't bind courts so strongly. AFAIK, American precedents are *not* freely available. Precedent databases are available only for a fee to law firms. Thus, only lawyers can hope to know what the de-facto law is. The online statutes don't give you nearly enough information. (I once tried to figure out who was supposed to yield in a tricky merging situation in California. The California Vehicle Code didn't seem to provide any principle that would have given the right answer. While perusing the laws, I did notice that the DMV driving recommendations for a large part don't seem to be based on the Vehicle Code. For example, I couldn't find any mention of interleaving in the Code.) Marko -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
