[ExI] age of mockery

[Anders Sandberg]

On 19/10/2012 07:39, Stefano Vaj wrote:
> It is true, however, that the lack of a "formal" constitution, meaning 
> a statute regulating the fundamental working of the pertinent legal 
> system, adopted with special emphasis and changeable only with more 
> formalities than ordinary legislation, makes England singularly prone 
> to whim-of-the-day change to what used to be considered as 
> "fundamental rights".

In theory. In practice, like everything in the glorious mess that is 
England, change is slow. The reason things don't break is that tradition 
is paramount: precendent, habit and interwoven institutions make it very 
hard to implement those whims. Sure, government can easily pass laws... 
but to actually change something is a bit like boxing with a pillow. You 
have to maintain pressure consistently for a long while to get the 
change to percolate through the system.

In specific, narrow questions Britain can go very far. But they better 
be something few are involved in or care about.


> Take for instance the "right to remain silent", equivalent to the US 
> Fifth Amendment and enshrined in some continental constitutions. A 
> prosecution-friendly majority does not like it, wham, it's gone.

Did that ever exist here? I can't recall seeing anything like it.

Most famously the UK doesn't accept that people refuse to give out keys 
to encrypted information, which in theory can lead to some nasty stuff. 
That gigabyte of astronomical data *might* be a steganographic volume 
after all, despite my protestations. But again, just like the law 
prohibiting having information of use to terrorists, the application and 
enforcement is totally arbitrary (and very rare). The real problem is of 
course that common law + overbroad laws + spotty enforcement = rule of 
men, not laws = bad. Except that it is always local and spotty. Very 
British, in short.

The UK could be a nasty police state if it got its act together. This is 
why I actually like the traditionalism and incompetence...

-- 
Anders Sandberg,
Future of Humanity Institute
Philosophy Faculty of Oxford University