Can a society reach a point where no new laws are needed, or will there always be someone looking to find a way to play the system and find a new way to cause harm?

Depends on what you want, and how much discretion you're wanting to give to judges to establish common law remedies.  While an infinite number of laws might account for infinite possibilities, functionally, it seems like it would be tough to effectively reach a limit.

Technology and human ingenuity have a way of offering all sorts of novel legal problems.

will there always be someone looking to find a way to play the system and find a new way to cause harm?

I'll point out that the inflation of legal codes probably has at least as much to do with gaming of the system by the side of enforcement and prosecution as it does by the criminal side of things.

It is possible if the society hits a technological plateau such that innovation is at the edges of existing science and tech.


Or if you wrote laws such that they were very broad and merely interpreted them for new things.  Kind of a libertarian utopia.

Well, determining whether putting a GPS device on a suspect's car qualifies as an invasion of privacy, for one...

Fair 'nough.

whereas the entire point of the "body of the law"  was so everyone knew exactly what was and was not considered illegal. supposed to be solid, black and white, no wiggle room, so every man knew where he stood.     of course when they graduated the first lawyer, the entire process became perverted.

I would say not only "can" but "should". I have been saying this for many years.

In a free society you ought to have almost no restrictions on your actions in private space.  As long as you don't destroy another's property or injure their person directly you are good.

In public space, there may be slightly more regulation as we have to define who has first access to a shared right, and how that shared right is apportioned.  Traffic lights illustrate this most excellently.

But most of what goes on in Congress is nonsense.  We don't need drunk driving specific laws.  My uncle drives far better at .15 than my father-in-law does stone sober.  If either of them kills my child with a car, I will be mad...  I won't care whether is was impairment or inability that killed my child.

We should, in point of opinion, be very wary of all new laws.  In most cases they are unneeded drivel that will just clog up the works and jam up someone who shouldn't be.

Perhaps a better way to approach the question would be to ask if it is possible to have a society with no laws.  **SNIP**

kind of a oxy there.  call them laws, or custom or tradition, or whatever you wish,  but for any society to function, there must be some rules.  Otherwise, you don't have a society, all you have is a strong man.  The strongest or the most ruthless, without any check upon his actions unless he himself checks his actions.  Even a good man can do something for the wrong reason, or do something bad for "good reasons".   Would you wish, for example, an Obama or a Hillary to be the one with power and you have none ?  or for a "it's for your own good" to not be constrained by the rule of law ?

do you truly wish a return to the rule of the strongest ?   what if You are not the strongest ?  what if your not the fastest, or best with a sword or bow or club ?   what if,  like many of us have noticed, ie in the "my knees hurt" thread,  18 was a long time ago. 

as long as the rule of law is still the rule,  we have a chance.  at least as long as the Constitution holds up. 

Hence my comment on judicial discretion in establishing common law remedies.  But, that gives a lot of power to the courts, which are not theoretically not as deliberative or accountable as what a legislature would be.

In practice, though, courts, even lower ones, tend to be more deliberative.  They seem to generally take seriously the fact that the debate is limited and the case law long standing.

Legislative bodies, on the other hand, seem to have a cavalier attitude that if they screw it up, the law can easily be revised.