This process gave us some excellent laws, which reflected our instinctive understanding of fairness and common sense in many instances. Murder, theft, partnership and sale of goods are all laws that have evolved and endured over hundreds of years, and still meet our expectations of how the law should work. Sadly, the last half century has seen a decline in the Common Law and an enormous growth in Statute Law, the laws that our government decides should apply to us, regardless of our instinctive feelings for what is just. And here we strike another big problem with lawyers in government. Politicians are willing to make laws to change the present situation if enough pressure is put on them to do so, for fear of losing their seats.
Lawyers are attuned to taking instructions and doing what they are told by clients.
This has led to our society being top-driven, with lobby groups rather than the general will of the people being the guiding force in making new laws. Our society has become that much more totalitarian as a result. Most laws that are imposed on us by politicians seem to emerge half-baked, and need major change soon afterwards. Many seem to go against the common feelings of the majority of the populace, such as the recently introduced expansion of the De Facto Relationships laws to cover just about anyone who supports anyone else. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the sphere of taxation law.