Obsolescence isn't only a problem of accumulation, it's also a problem of quality; poorly drafted laws and regulations age quickly and poorly. To combat this, in Germany -- as well as in France and the United Kingdom -- lawmaking is largely left to the executive, rather than to lobbyists or inattentive legislative committees. Legislators review, revise, and adopt government bills, but only rarely do they write laws themselves. Typically, in Germany, a ministry floats a preliminary draft law for discussion by the public. If it's well-received, the ministry, in coordination with the Federal Ministry of Justice, offers a formal draft to the cabinet. When the governing parties agree, they present either that draft or a variation with revisions. Parliament then irons out the most important issues. The Federal Ministry of Justice controls the technical quality of laws, imposing standards of comprehensibility, consistency, and coordination with other laws to ensure that all aspects of German law work together efficiently and harmoniously. Other countries employ similar bodies: for instance, in the UK, this same task is overseen by the Office of Parliamentary Counsel.

Regardless of where they originate, German laws use an open-textured language of flexibility that also guides solutions to future problems, rather than the language of micro-regulation more common in American law and regulation. Section 242 of the German Civil Code is famous for how it tempers the Code's rules with a general obligation of "good faith."

Both Germany and the United States are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). For nearly 20 years, the OECD has been working to establish and maintain a long-term basis for efficient and responsive regulation in its member countries. Its work is appreciated worldwide but particularly in the European Union (and a particular lack of effect here in the U.S.). Why?

The EU has 27 sovereign states with 27 different accumulations of laws and regulations. It also has 12 different national languages, which are natural barriers to a single market. If the EU is to be competitive, argues the OECD, it needs "a stable, high-quality legal framework that applies in all Member states" and that is also true to its principle of decentralism. One would expect greater difficulties there than in the United States given government overlap, state particularism, and licensing schemes designed to keep their European competitors at bay, but it is the EU and its member states that have embraced the OECD program.

EU issues are American issues: The laws of the EU and of its member states must each be good, up to date and must all work well together. Although the EU has had only a few years' experience, it has already had successes that we have missed. For instance, where we have multiple levels of regulatory reviews (sometimes dozens for a single project or product), Europe embraces the principle of the one-stop-shop. If you get an approval from the EU or from one member state, ideally you should be good to go in the whole EU.