The problems with a limited government

After almost a month of classes, I have come to the conclusion that life would be so much easier for us exchange students if the Americans would simply do away with their federal system and replace it with one central government- and a statement of positive rights. No more "well, there's not much uniformity amongst the states," "there's simply no basis in our constitution for a Soering-type case," "that would exceed the federal government's powers," or "as the dissent states, the only way this scenario can really be considered to fall within this Amendment is if the words are tortured beyond recognition." I understand, of course, that all of this is simply the inevitable consequence of studying in one of world's most famous federations, and, despite my turn as devil's advocate in class today, I do believe that the US system on the whole balances power very well, but nonetheless the OCD, traditionalist student in me has begun to cry out for rules- any rules! Not so much in Comparative Constitutional or American Legal History, which are clearly theoretical, seminar-based classes, but in Mental Health and Family Law I find it very hard that most classes are spent in discussion, with very little writing down of hard facts.
It's a different way to learn, I know, and I do enjoy it (particularly CCL, which I led for the first time today, and loved), but I am finding the lack of hard legal rules in the two classes which I feel really need them, well, kinda disturbing. I haven't yet looked up a Family past exam paper, but I am getting worried- the JD students had some fun sharing horror stories with us this morning. And yes, of course I realise that due to the division of powers, the only way I could get lists of rules upon rules is if I were to study on Connecticut law, which would happen (for good reason) only after taking the Bar. But, as Siobhan said, I do wonder how the Americans cope coming into the English system.

If nothing else, at least nationalism would lead to standardised TV programing. The TV in my apartment is finally up and running (I want to carry on from this by grumbling and growling about my landlords, but I will be mature...), and I must have spent a good 30 minutes trying to work out which random collection of letters and numbers represented which channel. I can now find CBS, Discovery, CNN, and the BBC, and I got to watch the latest trashy episode of my favourite trashy show this evening, but I have a feeling the TV saga may continue...