[Open-Legislation] Hello

Sat Jan 22 16:10:34 UTC 2011

On 22 January 2011 14:13, stef <stefan.marsiske at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> as a legal expert do you think that schemas and national legislation processes
> can be abtracted so far, that we can have the same system across all MS?

Yes! Provided that you get the right schema and you don't make
needless assumptions. Ideally you want someone who is extremely
familiar with legislation (a legislation geek) to know what sort of
shapes it has.

Some gotchas:

- Most systems of legislation have some element of non-hierarchical
numbering, for example:

* in UK legislation, longer acts are divided into parts, but section
numbers run on regardless of part divisions, they don't restart;
chapter numbers usually divide parts (so do restart) but not always.
* in the French Civil Code, section numbers behave in much the same
way as part numbers do in UK legislation:

http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/html/codes_traduits/code_civil_textA.htm

(chapters and titles too)

* same in European directives, section numbers don't restart article numbering

- Some legislative systems (UK, regular European legislation) pass
instruments, which you directly use and cite. So the UK Parliament
will pass (say) the Digital Economy Act 2010, and that is what is
cited, and used. Other systems have *codes* which are updated by
legislative instruments. Its often the case that no-one cares much
about the instruments and may never cite them. Examples are the French
and US federal (and most US states) systems. So you have the USC which
is great, but it makes US acts almost impossible to read.

I don't know what implications that has, but it means you have to take
into account rather different kinds of instrument.

- Names for segments of legislation are essentially random even within
a jurisdiction, so its something you record, but don't build into your
schema.

- Don't assume that you can predict the ordering of "numbers" of the
segments. Eg 192ZA may or may not come before 192A.

- Legislation can change its structure while being amended (eg new
levels can be inserted into the tree).

That sort of thing. Probably not that interesting. Its the kind of
thing I think about a lot.

-- 
Francis Davey