by Steven Jackson
Talmudism is a method of exploiting the human error in the letter of the law to escape the spirit of the law.
As law is a part of culture, within a homogeneous society peers can be relied upon to judge each other with regards to social norms. Hence the success of the Anglo jury of peers system. Laws do not need to be codified under such a system as the jury judges how reasonable the plaintiff’s actions were by comparing them to what their own would be given the circumstances.
Talmudism is the codification of law and a strict adherence to exactly how it is written or how the bureaucracy is performed. This allows individuals to escape justice through loopholes and human error.
This codification is only necessary when society is composed of various cultures.
Within cultures there are different classes. So maybe underclass is the wrong and outgroup is the right word.
Talmudism begins when several cultures interact in a single society and laws have to be codified to accommodate cultural differences. The abuse of the codification arises when pilpul is used to argue the letter of the law against the spirit of the law to escape justice.
Law does not lead to talmudism, disregard for the host culture does