Today you hear allot of people talking about loophole abuse and ways to meet the letter of a law without the spirit of it.

Today you hear allot of people talking about loophole abuse and ways to meet the letter of a law without the spirit of it.

Edit: to clarify I do not need an all or nothing approach. I'm okay with objective laws without 'spirit' clauses existing in some cases, and suspect they must. My question is how can a realistic society focus more on spirit of the law then current systems; that does not require throwing out all objective rulings or making everything based purely off of legal intent. It may be the only viable system is only a minor tweak from our current system, and that is a sufficient answer.

Any ruling on spirit of a law will become a president that affect future laws as with current rulings.

Later two individuals, both minors of approximately the same age, choose to have sex without being compelled and are caught. Both minors have had sex with a minor, which means both have violated the letter of the law. However, the spirit of the law was written in such a way to make it clear that the intent was to protect minors from being compelled by adults, which did not happen. A ruling may find them technically in violation of the law, but not in violation of the spirit since the harm the law was trying to avoid does not apply here. This becomes a president which applies to other minors of similar age in the future. Later you may have situations such as a 17 year 11 month old man having sex with a 18 year 0 month old women and find it technically violating the law, since one is under 18, but argue the spirit does not apply. Further ruling on more complex situations will help to cover any similar ambiguities over time.

Any ruling on spirit of a law will become a precedent that affect future laws as with current rulings.

Later two individuals, both minors of approximately the same age, choose to have sex without being compelled and are caught. Both minors have had sex with a minor, which means both have violated the letter of the law. However, the spirit of the law was written in such a way to make it clear that the intent was to protect minors from being compelled by adults, which did not happen. A ruling may find them technically in violation of the law, but not in violation of the spirit since the harm the law was trying to avoid does not apply here. This becomes a precedent which applies to other minors of similar age in the future. Later you may have situations such as a 17 year 11 month old man having sex with a 18 year 0 month old women and find it technically violating the law, since one is under 18, but argue the spirit does not apply. Further ruling on more complex situations will help to cover any similar ambiguities over time.