[HN Gopher] Legal Drafting and Computer Programming
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       Legal Drafting and Computer Programming
        
       Author : admp
       Score  : 18 points
       Date   : 2021-12-24 19:00 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (davidallengreen.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (davidallengreen.com)
        
       | hirundo wrote:
       | I wonder if some kind of compiler/linter is possible for legal
       | text. Like, "Warning: this comma is subject to ambiguous
       | interpretation." But natural languages are poor candidates to use
       | for composing unambiguous text, and any artificial language that
       | you have to learn would be a problem, since it's critical that
       | law is comprehensible to those it governs. On the other hand, it
       | may be possible to construct a legal DSL that is more clear to
       | the layman than the predominant legal jargon, and can be parsed
       | into an S-expression.
       | 
       | And if we can dream about unambiguous law, we can dream bigger,
       | about a compiler or linter that could extract more conceptual
       | flaws, like "Warning: this law would facially violate the First
       | Amendment", or "this law creates an incentive structure that may
       | cancel its intentions."
       | 
       | This is probably too sci-fi to happen in my lifetime, but if I'm
       | lucky maybe I'll live to see computer generated Friend of the
       | Court briefs. We may be on the road to that with computer
       | assisted analysis of historical language corpora to help
       | determine original meanings.
        
         | Kalium wrote:
         | Legal jargon exists for the same reason programming languages
         | exist: it is functionally impossible to be sufficiently precise
         | in idiomatic vernacular. Too many things require precise and
         | clear shared definitions. What is real property? What is a
         | security? What is intent? What is a class? What is an object?
         | What is memory? How do you even begin to function when you
         | can't define these precisely?
         | 
         | With this in mind, a person could make a reasonable case that
         | legal language is already a DSL implemented in a natural
         | language.
        
         | vcdimension wrote:
         | "Catala: A Programming Language for the Law" :
         | https://arxiv.org/pdf/2103.03198.pdf
        
       | 11thEarlOfMar wrote:
       | "For the lawyer, each word in a formal legal document has (or
       | should have) a purpose: it has been chosen instead of other
       | words, and also instead of no words at all."
       | 
       | I know people who can engage in free-form conversation in this
       | manner. Not to say like a lawyer, but where there are no words
       | missing, no words incorrect, and no words superflous. I've
       | marvelled at that ability and find that style of speaking
       | mesmerizing.
        
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       (page generated 2021-12-24 23:00 UTC)