A Model of the Law Communication Process: Formal and Free Law

This Article and the one to be published in the next issue depict how government decrees are made available to citizens and identify those conditions under which various citizens are not likely to acquire the knowledge essential for the deference that American government requires. The process by which government communicates its commands to citizens is often inadequate to make individuals or organizations aware of applicable laws. Even if the citizen receives the law, he may fail to understand or respond to the law as the law-drafters intended. The roots of these failures can be examined alternatively by (1) analyzing the law transmission process to determine where information loss is possible, or (2) analyzing the adequacy of receptory capacity of intended law subjects. This Article concentrates primarily on the law transmission process and secondarily examines how reception capacity is affected by the skills and proximity of personnel whom business organizations employ to increase knowledge of government decrees. Although the focus is on how the law transmission process of federal, state, and local governments in the United States affects the ability of business organizations to respond to laws, the model set forth is also relevant to other intended law subjects and other countries