You know, I agree with your sentiments entirely - the legal system does seem overly complicated sometimes. As for working on what other people did in the past, though, surely that's essential, or you'd never know what was considered legal, and what wasn't. Even simple rules lead to complex situations, so all you've got to go on is the interpretation of the law in past cases. It's useful to be able to look back at a case similar to your situation, and say "yep, the court said it was okay to do that".