Scissors please
Published by Yazad Jal March 11th, 2004 in Law, Quote of the dayThe more corrupt the State the more numerous the laws.
~ Cornelius Tacitus (AD 55?-117?)
Quote source: Freedom’s Nest. Biographical info on Cornelius Tacitus
in Wikipedia.
Doesn’t look like this has been heeded in India. Bibek Debroy has done a lot of work in this area, estimating that there are 35,000+ laws in India (the exact number, no one knows. Debroy stopped counting at 35,000). He’s written extensively on law reform. Here are a few pieces. Seminar magazine (2001), Rediff (1999) and Agenda for Change (1998)
With thousands of statutes to address, how does one begin the process of legal reform? At the risk of some simplification, the following five priorities seem to emerge. First, simplify laws in factor markets like land and labour and improve the quality of land records. Second, get the government out of civil litigation. Third, reduce tax-related (both direct and indirect) cases. Fourth, completely revamp the Code of Civil Procedure. Fifth, simplify administrative law and make it more transparent. This is not a complete listing of all that needs to be done in the area of law reform. But if one can accomplish these five tasks, quite a lot will be achieved.
I suggest you take a look at the US Federal Register - about 69 volumes and the year 2003 alone contains about 12,000+ regulations. These are only Federal Regulations mind you - each of the 50 States has their own register with local rules and regulations - and yet the US is amongst the least corrupt countries - there goes Bibek’s hypothesis.