I can't speak for European countries, but our laws and regulations at the federal level in Canada (and Provincial) and the US are a complete mess. The problem is simple; everyone wants a law/regulation. x group wants a new law for their region, x groups wants a law on airports in theirs, x group wants laws to protect y group(s), x group wants speed limit changes on y highway, x group wants y regulations on z industry, x group wants mandatory sentencing for gun crime, x group wants them for gun crimes involving a robbery, x group wants mandatory minimums for street racing, x group wants mandatory minimums for reckless driving killing pedestrians, x group wants mandatory minimums for running over a pedestrian at a crosswalk near a school between the hours of 8am and 3pm, etc. etc. Everyone wants a law and politicians have been all too happy to give them as:
A) It looks good on them
and
B) Its a lot easier to add laws than it is to remove old ones.
As a result our Criminal Code, federal regulations/laws, provincial statutes, etc. are an absolute mess (and especially business regulations in the US, which having been built up in layer after layer after layer of red-tape and regulations are a nightmare to process, especially for small businesses) in dire need of some housekeeping. But no one is willing to do it because:
A) It would be a massive undertaking to clean up the Criminal Code for example
and
B) It would have little political value in terms of gaining votes (and would likely have negative impact cause anything even remotely perceived to be taking laws away which x group supports would result in outcry, even if it was simply being consolidated)
