I wouldn't praise Cisco support too highly. We had an issue (low, but constant impact) recently which stretched into months. There were 3 pieces of equipment which were implicated based on packet captures (where they could be taken was limited, so the suspects were down to FW, Switch, and load balance). We needed 3 separate tickets, even though it was all Cisco equipment. As each tech was working from scratch, it took quite a while for each to get up to speed on the issue. Scheduling didn't help, as it seemed difficult for some of them to synch up with our admin. Eventually due to a tip from Verizon, our admin stumbled on the issue himself (FW interface had spontaneously switched from auto to half-duplex).

until 1790, all our laws were case law, decided by judges

In order to prove your point, you would need to cite some case law generated during that period. The GP at least gave some concrete info.