"I don't know," says the translator. "I am only qualified to answer linguistic questions."

"Do you know how long it takes most people to memorize the ones that apply to them?"

"I don't know," says the translator.

"Okay. Can you read me any laws covering what happens to people who don't understand the laws?"

"Ignorance of the law is a partial defense in most crimes with the following exceptions:" It reads on.

That is extremely alien but probably necessary when you have this many laws. She listens intently to the exceptions.

Won't let you get away with any substantial violent crime or high-value property crime or treason-type stuff.

That makes much more sense.

"If I accidentally broke a law that wasn't one of these, what would I need to do to demonstrate that I didn't know better?"

The translator translates a section that is about the definition of ignorance of the law, to wit: serious learning disability, being a child, being a generally confused immigrant who also makes more innocent mistakes of a similar magnitude, having had to make a decision under time pressure that didn't allow looking up the law, and not having ever belonged to a profession where knowledge of the law was required.

"What happens to a child or someone with serious learning disability who breaks a law?"

"That is not listed in this legal code."

She asks questions that are more likely to have answers.

The translator will skip around to whatever parts of the document are obviously relevant.

After a while it's too much to take in at once.

"What language are these translated from?"

"English, with reference to the other languages of the Federation where the shades of meaning inform the translation."

"Is English the language I would need to learn to do business in the Federation?"

"No. Federation residents are equipped with universal translators, which will accept update propagations from this instance."

"...Accept update propagations? They learn from each other?"

"Yes."

"Can they be used to communicate with other people who have them?"

"Translators do not work as telecommunications in their own right. Separate devices must be used for that."

"Can anyone with one of those devices contact anyone else with one?"

"I do not know. I know things about languages and about translation software."

"That makes sense. Can I learn to perceive and pronounce all the languages you know about?"

"Some of them will be unpronounceable with your anatomy."