Machine-consumable/executable legislation

What if drafters could embed basic flags in drafts to check during the drafting for internal consistency on key elements (definitions, duties, powers and so on)? That does not require an assumption that it is possible to reach an ultimate goal of having AI read the whole statute book plus all the cases to provide definitive answers to all questions that a citizen/business might have. But the small-scale approach might have the spin-off benefit of helping illustrate where the problems/impossibilities would be in the bigger project.

To drafters, as lawyers, it may seem obvious that when we give a discretionary power to a statutory body we are able to rely on the background of administrative law, and that concepts such as proportionality and reasonableness look impossible to computerise so as to produce yes/no answers. To fans of AI and fuzzy logic that may just indicate that we are dinosaurs waiting for disruption. But could we perhaps meet somewhere in the middle?

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