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Worldbuilding

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    $\begingroup$ You might want to search for Chthonic Law. The short answer is: once people write down authoritative explanations of what the Spirit of the Law really is, those are by definition written laws and people start lawyering them, too. $\endgroup$
    – Davislor
    Commented Sep 8, 2015 at 19:34
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    $\begingroup$ What happens in your society if each side really did believe that their interpretation was the correct spirit of the agreement they made? $\endgroup$
    – Random832
    Commented Sep 8, 2015 at 21:27
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    $\begingroup$ AFAIK, the core principle behind all legal code ever in the real world is that the public should know what is illegal and what the punishment is for doing illegal things (e.g. if you steal, you lose a hand). This requires some amount of focus on the letter of the law, so as to clarify the spirit and to offer peace of mind and protection to the populace (e.g. Hammurabi promises not to have your hand cut off unless you steal). If you don't want that, I think whatever substitute you use will have to be very alien, at least in its principles. $\endgroup$
    – user2781
    Commented Sep 9, 2015 at 1:32
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    $\begingroup$ A law with loopholes that can be abused is simply a badly written law, and that is why there are many books on the law - to try to cover these loopholes. The problem with "the spirit" is that now you have to give more power to judges to interpret the spirit. This means that it is a lot more open to moralising and even may depend the mood of the individual judge on the day, as well as adding time to the resolution of cases as expert witnesses need to be called in (e.g. a psychologist to assess the maturity difference between the 18 year old and the 17 year old in your example) $\endgroup$
    – komodosp
    Commented Sep 10, 2015 at 11:23
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    $\begingroup$ This question looked really interesting. Then I started reading a ten page question and answer, with comments the size of paragraphs. This question is quite in depth, and not for the faint of heart. $\endgroup$
    – Xandar The Zenon
    Commented Feb 8, 2016 at 3:32