A thief could break into a barn, which is not considered a dwelling since no one lives there, and steal valuable farm equipment. Likewise, a thief could enter a house and clear it out at daytime under this rule and not be guilty of burglary. Since the policy did not match up with the rule, courts started to liberalize the rule so that interpretations of dwelling were expanded or the nighttime requirement dropped. Today's rule is much more flexible. Some of the common public policy arguments that are used in the law include the following.
Society has to have some losses in order to make gains.
For instance, this view holds that you can breach a contract and only have to pay damages if it would be economically wasteful to carry out the contract. Everyone knows that there is a bright line rule. Cross over it and you've violated the rule. This sort of rule also lends administrative efficiency to the court such that balancing tests are not used. Copyright 1999-2000 Benjamin A. Templin.