[tsahyt]

Rewriting law to be machine-readable as in "instructions a machine can understand" would be quite a task I suppose. Interesting project though. Would that even be possible? How well does the law map on the black and white logic of a computer?

[_delirium]

There's a large area of legal philosophy around those kinds of questions. Pragmatism vs. formalism in judging is one split that's sometimes identified, with "formalism" being closer to a view that the law is a precise set of procedures that must be followed mechanically, and "pragmatism" closer to the view that the law is a set of principles that must be applied using common sense to reach equitable outcomes. Lots of other positions as well, around that "what is law, anyway" question.

There are some attempts to formalize something like the pragmatic view, too (oddly enough), in artificial intelligence "legal argumentation" systems, which try to model the back-and-forth of adversarial legal systems, determining when to bring up an argument, how to counter an argument, etc.

[skrebbel]

Sometimes, I fantasize about turning that around. What if parts of the law (say, fiscal law sounds like a candidate) are chosen to be as black and white as the logic of a computer?

Policymakers could get automated compile errors when trying to craft conflicting laws. They could instantly compute what the effect of a law change is on this and that demographic or persona.

[rat87]

There are serious problems with trying to make laws black and white. A certain amount of flexibility is frequently a good thing. Let the judges knowledge/judgement decide. An example of problems with the alternative is 3 strikes laws.

[tsahyt]

> automated compile errors when trying to craft conflicting laws

That just made my day :)

It's actually a good idea, I think. I'm just not exactly sure whether that would work because laws govern the real world and in the real world, logic isn't binary.

However, such laws would at least be understandable for mere programmers ;)

[gosub]

    data Offense = MensRea | ActusReus
    CriminalLaw :: [Offense] -> Punishment
    ExtenuatingCircumstances :: CriminalLaw -> [Circumstance] -> ExtenuatingEffect -> Punishment

[icebraining]

Logic in computers doesn't have to be binary either. There are plenty of implementations of fuzzy logic, including some programming languages.