Question on export issues

[James A. Donald]

Peter Gutmann:
 > > That's because there's nothing much to publish: In
 > > the US, notify the BIS via email.

Ivan Krstic' wrote:
 > Our outside counsel -- specializing in this area --
 > thought this was insufficient.

You were probably asking your counsel the wrong
question.  Never ever ask the question "is this legal",
for you will always find that the answer to that is that
NOTHING is legal, and hearing your counsel tell you that
puts you in trouble.  The question should have been "Has
anyone got in trouble for doing this, and if so, how big
a trouble, and what attracted the attention of the man?

Had you asked that question instead, you would have
heard the answer that no one ever gets in trouble for
minimalist compliance with the export laws - an answer
that cannot get you, or your counsel, in trouble.

Legislation and regulation, though never revealing what
is legal, frequently forbids and commands all sorts of
things quite clearly, telling us all sort of things are
forbidden and yet ninety nine percent of such
legislation and regulation is dead as a doornail.

It is never possible to know what is permitted, so you
must never ask your counsel about what is permitted,
since he is legally required to give answers that create
problems.  Legal uncertainty and capricious enforcement
of obscure, unclear  and incomprehensible laws is simply
a cost of doing business.  No legal counsel can reduce
this cost, and if asked to do so, is legally required to
give answers that increase, rather than reduce this
cost.

When you ask a counsel to provide legal certainty, you
ask him for what can never exist, and what he is
forbidden to provide.

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