Make it expensive to break or get around the rules, and most people will follow them (see Scott Alexander’s review of the Legal Systems book, and ctrl+F “one crime a year”). If enough people are willing to pay the high price (in time, money, etc.) to go through the formal processes of getting around them, or of taking the risks involved in just breaking them, that’s a strong signal to society that the rules need updating.
As far as trusting judges more than clerks (and appellate judges more still, etc.): Like any good magic system, you lock the really dangerous powers behind rituals that require significant sacrifices. Going to law school, cultivating a reputation for whatever virtues the local judge-selecting mechanism uses, accepting a lower salary than you’d potentially have as a lawyer, and so on.
Yes, and I think that’s kind of the point.
Make it expensive to break or get around the rules, and most people will follow them (see Scott Alexander’s review of the Legal Systems book, and ctrl+F “one crime a year”). If enough people are willing to pay the high price (in time, money, etc.) to go through the formal processes of getting around them, or of taking the risks involved in just breaking them, that’s a strong signal to society that the rules need updating.
As far as trusting judges more than clerks (and appellate judges more still, etc.): Like any good magic system, you lock the really dangerous powers behind rituals that require significant sacrifices. Going to law school, cultivating a reputation for whatever virtues the local judge-selecting mechanism uses, accepting a lower salary than you’d potentially have as a lawyer, and so on.