Representing legislative Rules as Code: Reducing the problems of ‘scaling up’

Mowbray, A; Chung, P; Greenleaf, G

Representing legislative Rules as Code: Reducing the problems of ‘scaling up’

Mowbray, A

Chung, P Greenleaf, G

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Publisher:: Elsevier
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Computer Law and Security Review, 2023, 48, pp. 105772
Issue Date:: 2023-04-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Mowbray, A https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3667-0706
dc.contributor.author	Chung, P
dc.contributor.author	Greenleaf, G
dc.date.accessioned	2023-09-25T00:38:41Z
dc.date.available	2023-09-25T00:38:41Z
dc.date.issued	2023-04-01
dc.identifier.citation	Computer Law and Security Review, 2023, 48, pp. 105772
dc.identifier.issn	0267-3649
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/172254
dc.description.abstract	We propose an approach to analysing the nature of existing legal rules, particularly legislative rules, that regards legislation as fundamentally a set of related propositions. We propose a method for representing these rules, using a coding language developed for the project that uses a quasi-natural language representation. It enables the interpreter program for that coding language to process these rules so as to produce ‘consultations’ to determine the values of goals which the legislation is capable of determining, with dialogues and explanations generated ‘on the fly’. Progress that has been made in automating this coding process to create rules in that coding language directly from existing legislation, using a pre-processor program developed for the project. This can also be described as ‘scaling up’ the production of ‘Rules as Code’ or ‘Law as Code’. If successfully developed further this has potential to make a significant contribution toward realising the practical potential of Rules as Code. We conclude there is now evidence that these processes can be generalised (‘scaled up’) to deal with the conversion or production of large bodies of legislation, and that this has considerable value. The pre-processor software is evolving rapidly, in the variety of structural forms of legislation that it can convert into the coding language, and this work will continue. Based on this experience, we also demonstrate how the drafting of legislation could be changed so that appropriately drafted legislation is directly readable and understandable by humans and also directly usable by machines. To be effective, laws drafted in this way will need to be simultaneously authoritative legislative rules and code.
dc.language	en
dc.publisher	Elsevier
dc.relation.ispartof	Computer Law and Security Review
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1016/j.clsr.2022.105772
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess
dc.subject	1801 Law
dc.subject.classification	Law
dc.subject.classification	4804 Law in context
dc.subject.classification	4806 Private law and civil obligations
dc.title	Representing legislative Rules as Code: Reducing the problems of ‘scaling up’
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	48
utslib.for	1801 Law
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Law
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access	*
dc.date.updated	2023-09-25T00:38:40Z
pubs.publication-status	Published
pubs.volume	48

Abstract:

We propose an approach to analysing the nature of existing legal rules, particularly legislative rules, that regards legislation as fundamentally a set of related propositions. We propose a method for representing these rules, using a coding language developed for the project that uses a quasi-natural language representation. It enables the interpreter program for that coding language to process these rules so as to produce ‘consultations’ to determine the values of goals which the legislation is capable of determining, with dialogues and explanations generated ‘on the fly’. Progress that has been made in automating this coding process to create rules in that coding language directly from existing legislation, using a pre-processor program developed for the project. This can also be described as ‘scaling up’ the production of ‘Rules as Code’ or ‘Law as Code’. If successfully developed further this has potential to make a significant contribution toward realising the practical potential of Rules as Code. We conclude there is now evidence that these processes can be generalised (‘scaled up’) to deal with the conversion or production of large bodies of legislation, and that this has considerable value. The pre-processor software is evolving rapidly, in the variety of structural forms of legislation that it can convert into the coding language, and this work will continue. Based on this experience, we also demonstrate how the drafting of legislation could be changed so that appropriately drafted legislation is directly readable and understandable by humans and also directly usable by machines. To be effective, laws drafted in this way will need to be simultaneously authoritative legislative rules and code.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/172254