The first best practice in law writing is “generality”. Laws shouldn’t be specially carved out to benefit one group or to attack or harm a narrow group of individuals.
Ideally, lawmakers should never know in advance to whom the laws apply. The British lacked that when they targeted the American colonists for special taxes. When you see custom laws written for the benefit or detriment of a single narrow group, you know it’s a bad law. For a modern example see the Obamacare legislation’s exemptions for big donors, the well-connected, and Congress itself.
The next principle is prospectivity. This is the constraint on ex post facto laws. Laws should always apply in the future and never to the past. You cannot undo the past or change your behavior. The last thing a tyrant wants is to allow you to modify your behavior and escape sanction. They simply don’t like what you did and want you punished.
Publicity is the third principle of good law. Most laws are completely unknown to the general public. This is very bad policy. Governments usually publicly publish notices, but in obscure papers or at government offices. Yet, they’re willing to make massive changes in how people live. Think about it when you find out about a law by accident who would hide it, but someone who doesn’t want you to know about it. When government hides information, the purpose is always nefarious.
This brings us to consent. Consent is critical to law-writing in a free society. Laws must be generally acceptable to those who will live by them. That’s why elections are so important. It is also why judge-made law is so often bad, it goes against the public will and forces on people, laws that they wouldn’t place on themselves. Next time you hear about a law ask yourself if you’d consent to it willfully. If no, it is likely a bad law. It was the absence of consent that brought about the American Revolution.
The final item for good laws is proper due process. This is something that America has lost for a long time. Overcharging by prosecutors, plea bargaining, and prosecutorial whim have long destroyed the notion and respect for law. Due process means that the law is meted out equally and fairly with each similar crime being treated the same. Justice must be blind.
Our country, founded on Rule of Law, is headed for extinction. And it will do so because the majority of living Americans has been conditioned not to think morally, and not to respect our foundation.
We now have schoolchildren who get ‘free’ breakfast and lunch at government schools, while bringing their smartphones to the classroom. What does this tell them about their world!