If I had to give one piece of advice to legislators, it would be very simple: Do not imagine that a law does exactly what you want. Beware of magical thinking.
It’s easy to imagine a world in which the written law is always obeyed, as if by magic. This imaginary world is filled with docile, uncomplaining citizens, who never question the law and never do anything outside of the wise legislator’s intentions. When the legislator decrees something, they do it. When the legislator forbids, they abstain.
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