This was the difficulty with laws and with legal language: they used language which very few people, apart from lawyers, understood. Penal Codes, then, were all very well, but she wondered whether it might not be simpler to rely on something like the Ten Commandments, which, with a bit of modernisation, seemed to give a perfectly good set of guidelines for the conduct of one's life
by Alexander McCall Smith
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The passage highlights the complexity of legal language, suggesting that it is often inaccessible to the general public, with understanding primarily limited to lawyers. The author expresses a concern that while penal codes serve their purpose, they may complicate rather than simplify the understanding of laws.

In contrast, the author proposes using simpler moral guidelines, like an updated version of the Ten Commandments, which could serve as an effective framework for ethical behavior. This approach emphasizes that straightforward principles might be more beneficial for guiding everyday conduct than complicated legal jargon.

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January 23, 2025

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