Prompted by Are digitally signed documents legally binding? - to which the only answer I can give is "It depends on your jurisdiction!", and related to Are employment law questions off-topic?: do we want to consider all questions of law/legality off-topic?
Over on Server Fault we have explicitly disallowed them in our FAQ, being that the vast majority of us aren't lawyers and the wide variation in legal jurisdictions even just within the US makes the questions hard to answer.
Thoughts?
I voted to close the Are digitally signed documents legally binding? question as too localized.
It's virtually impossible to answer this question. Laws vary from state to state, locality to locality, and country to country. Furthermore, the laws change frequently, and sometimes interpretation of the law may be different than the actual case law.
Since we intend this site to be a resource of helpful information, these questions must be explicitly disallowed and closed. Information is only helpful if it's correct, and since it's impossible to verify the accuracy of that information without consulting an attorney, we must close them.
That does not mean that all questions that touch on legality are off topic. I can see your point here, but the problem is how do you avoid making the question not be too localized? How can one word the question so that it is generally applicable to the worldwide audience of the internet.? Now, that quote came from SO's FAQ. It's not in this FAQ, so if you can successfully make the case that this site is not intended for the worldwide audience of the Internet, then that may make the too localized aspect invalid. Good luck! :)
Yes, and to be honest, I don't see how you can have site about the workplace and not allow for some sort legality questions to be asked. The catch is that I think there needs to be a custom close option for questions that are going to be along the lines of "Consult a lawyer in your jurisdiction" but for the rest of the questions I can see a fairly straightforward answer coming back that just cites the relevant law. In the United States most HR personnel are going to be fairly familiar with the basic laws in their jurisdiction and possibly even outside of it if they work for an international corporation so it's not like there aren't going to be people on the site that can't answer the questions.
Some legal questions could be on topic. I am thinking of questions about wording in a contract, potential liability, and similar concerns. If the question is purely a matter of law, then it is certainly off topic. But I do not think we should have a rule that says if it is about law at all then it is off topic.
The question that was closed is a simple matter of contract law. The sort you'll encounter in any course on business law.
