“Your Honor, why should I bother obeying a law my elected representatives could not be bothered to write?” seems like it should be a reasonable defense, but you’re right that the onus is on us as The Governed to know and understand every bit of slop and hallucination on the books.
Re:AI Will Write Complex Laws
by wakawaka28 on Sunday January 26, 2025 @12:10PM
(#42831640)
The reason ignorance of the law is no excuse is because anybody could claim it whether they knew or not, and nobody would necessarily know if it's true. I suspect that it would be viewed differently if the law is truly complex.
Indeed.
I would reframe that saying: Ignorance of the law must not become an excuse.
The difference being: when a reasonable person would in fact be ignorant, that's a systematic problem with the legal system.
Ignorance of the law, famously, is no excuse. As a layperson you're expected to read and understand all laws that affect you.
This is, of course, already absurd.