Mastermind and the road to Damascus

[Peter Tomlinson]

Brian Morrison wrote:
> On Mon, 23 Feb 2009 22:11:12 +0000
> Roland Perry <lists@internetpolicyagency.com> wrote:
>
>   
>> In article <a9f4d96f0902231137u61daef87rd6988905dd78471@mail.gmail.com>, 
>> John Wilson <tugwilson@gmail.com> writes
>>     
>>> the worry for press photographers is not that they will be arrested
>>> but that they will be obstructed.
>>>       
>> Yes, I understand that problem, but I'm not clear why this law makes it 
>> significantly worse than before.
>>     
>
> Because it codifies something that previously was not so, namely that
> there is a specific offence of photographing a police officer in
> circumstances which can be finessed to be actionable.
>   
We just seem to be moving in tiny fragements towards the civil code 
system without going wholeheartedly for it - colloquially, I see a civil 
code jurisdiction as one where everything is forbidden unless it is 
explicitly permitted (but those in authority have discretion to allow 
lots of things to happen, and are hopefully managed in a regime that is 
run by skilled and sensible people). I saw a little while ago on 
Wikipedia that some countries operate with a hybrid of common law and 
civil code.

Peter