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Ask HN: Does this “legal” programming language exist?
As I was reviewing some legal documents, a realization hit me - these are generally very logical documents (ideally).
Are there any programming languages that allow the user to do imports on larger legal documents, define terms, define conditions, and compile into an actionable legal document?
If not - anyone down to hack together a prototype with me?
- tlack 10y agoI had pondered a different approach: using machine learning coupled with something like Prolog or Microsoft Z3, but never got around to it. You could probably make quite a bit of money helping companies get out of bad contracts due to minor errors in legalese. I don't think I have time right now to help though. Keep me updated.
- newman8r 10y agoI'm thinking of open sourcing it and releasing it for free - my target use is the small business or startup who is clueless and can't afford good legal help. Maybe they could use this to maintain contracts, operating agreements - track changes via version control - of course, all contracts would probably need to be reviewed by some sort of legal professional but if it checks out, it's a lot cheaper than having them create the contracts from scratch. I'll make a note of your interest and will update you if I release a demo.
- brudgers 10y agoBasically, such a language would be a DSL (domain specific language). They exist, but the scope necessarily has to be domain specific, such as insurance contracts or the work of an individual law firm. The reason is that the higher level legal abstractions have to map to aggregates of lower level level abstractions in the same way as a high level programming language maps to lower level languages such as machine code. Essentially, the language has to expand to boiler plate and the process is roughly equivalent to compiling. My advice for attracting collaborators is to hack something together first so that people don't face the blank piece of paper problem and are more likely to know what they are stepping into. Good luck.
- newman8r 10y agoThanks for pointing me in the right direction - I am going to look into domain specific languages. Now that I look at these I realize I've used a handful of them but never had the conceptual model of a DSL to place them in - much appreciated.