I am not a law expert, but my impression is that there is a lot of common sense + human judgment in the application of laws, just as there is a lot of common sense + human judgment in interpreting requests.
(I am a lawyer by training.)
Yes, this is certainly true. Many laws explicitly or implicitly rely on standards (i.e., less-definite adjudicatory formulas) than hard-and-fast rules. “Reasonableness,” for example, is often a key term in a legal claim or defense. Juries often make such determinations, which also means whether the actual legality of an action is resolved upon adjudication and not ex ante (although an aligned, capable AI could in principle simulate the probability that a jury would find its actions reasonable—that’s what lawyers do.)
(I am a lawyer by training.)
Yes, this is certainly true. Many laws explicitly or implicitly rely on standards (i.e., less-definite adjudicatory formulas) than hard-and-fast rules. “Reasonableness,” for example, is often a key term in a legal claim or defense. Juries often make such determinations, which also means whether the actual legality of an action is resolved upon adjudication and not ex ante (although an aligned, capable AI could in principle simulate the probability that a jury would find its actions reasonable—that’s what lawyers do.)