The inefficiency stems from the complexity of the law. We have built up over many years an unfathomably large codex and an equally staggering infrastructure devoted to training legions of people (lawyers) in how to read, interpret and apply it.
How do we address this?
One emerging solution employs advanced AIs to pore over the reams of evidence in order to better inform lawyers of the legal situation. I can imagine extrapolating this particular methodology far enough into the future such that the entire process subsequent to arrest (processing, pre-trial hearing, trial and sentencing) might be automated to the degree that it could be accomplished within minutes instead of months.
What would society look like if we had such an "efficient" judicial system?
That's a potentially terrifying possibility. It may be that we'd end up incarcerating orders of magnitude more people; a dystopian reality. How would we then rein in such a powerful system? I have no idea.
> The inefficiency stems from the complexity of the law.
Not just that, though -- it also comes from the inherent inefficiencies in trying to recover exactly what happened from any given situation in which the question of whether a crime was committed.
We could start recording everything that happens, but... that's also a potentially terrifying possibility.
> We could start recording everything that happens
You're in luck! Facebook, Google, and many of the wonderful, selfless people who post on HN are already working on that... or at least defending others' "right" to do so if they aren't doing it themselves.
Various entities are tracking who you know, who you sleep with (http://www.whosdrivingyou.org/blog/ubers-deleted-rides-of-gl...), what your face looks like, what your friends' faces look like (thanks, photo tagging enthusiasts!), who you talk to, what you say to them, when you say it, where you go (thanks to various wonderful sources, including ALPR companies like Vigilant), how long you stay there, what you eat, what you wear, what you watch, what you listen to, where you move your mouse while viewing websites, who your doctor is, what medications you take, what the symptoms of that last rash you had were, what your political views are, what you read, where you work, how many steps you took today, what websites you visit, and about 30,000 other bits of data... just to keep you safe!
The future is so amazing! I don't know what I would do without a customized advertising experience(tm). Such a drastic improvement over life in the past where people were so bored of advertisements that they chose to avoid watching them! What none of us knew at the time was that we really just wanted to see more relevant advertisements more often, while giving up our privacy for the corporations' greater good! I sleep much more soundly after a solid day of being bombarded with advertisements that teach me to be a better consumer!
How do we address this?
One emerging solution employs advanced AIs to pore over the reams of evidence in order to better inform lawyers of the legal situation. I can imagine extrapolating this particular methodology far enough into the future such that the entire process subsequent to arrest (processing, pre-trial hearing, trial and sentencing) might be automated to the degree that it could be accomplished within minutes instead of months.
What would society look like if we had such an "efficient" judicial system?
That's a potentially terrifying possibility. It may be that we'd end up incarcerating orders of magnitude more people; a dystopian reality. How would we then rein in such a powerful system? I have no idea.