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No it's not; a program defines computations from certain inputs to outputs. A legal document, on the other hand, is a deontologigal set of rules saying you must

No it's not; a program defines computations from certain inputs to outputs. A legal document, on the other hand, is a deontologigal set of rules saying you must X and cannot Y etc. While introducing variables and libraries could make documents shorter, they wouldn't be easier to read or write, because a single change could have massive effects in other places, which you wouldn't notice at first because there's no computer to test the "code" on. In the end legal text is just natural language, and it needs to be interpreted as such. And this is for the better, I for one wouldn't want a judge to just apply some formal procedure to decide guilt.

guard-of-terra 15y ago
"set of rules saying you must X and cannot Y etc" How it isn't a computation for certain inputs (X, Y...) to certain outputs (must, cannot, ...)? Legal text doesn't look like natural language and doesn't behave as one.
- andreasvc 15y ago
  I believe it's not computation because the inputs are not well-defined, and the result depends on contexts which aren't well-defined either. What kind of definition of "look like" are you working with? I see words that are in the dictionary, plus I can parse them into meaningful sentences. I have no idea how "text" is supposed to behave anyway... It's about what humans do with it, and that happens to be the same as with other texts: humans read it and do stuff based on that. Sure there are differences, just as a letter of recommendation differs from a novel, but if you are claiming it's a different "language" you'll have to back that up.
  - guard-of-terra 15y ago
    Well, programs sometimes have to handle such problems too. You can always find keywords and function names from a program source in a dictionary, but it doesn't make program source a normal text. The main difference is that a legal document can be evaluated and it transforms input to output; novel doesn't.

guard-of-terra 15y ago

"set of rules saying you must X and cannot Y etc" How it isn't a computation for certain inputs (X, Y...) to certain outputs (must, cannot, ...)? Legal text doesn't look like natural language and doesn't behave as one.

andreasvc 15y ago
I believe it's not computation because the inputs are not well-defined, and the result depends on contexts which aren't well-defined either. What kind of definition of "look like" are you working with? I see words that are in the dictionary, plus I can parse them into meaningful sentences. I have no idea how "text" is supposed to behave anyway... It's about what humans do with it, and that happens to be the same as with other texts: humans read it and do stuff based on that. Sure there are differences, just as a letter of recommendation differs from a novel, but if you are claiming it's a different "language" you'll have to back that up.
- guard-of-terra 15y ago
  Well, programs sometimes have to handle such problems too. You can always find keywords and function names from a program source in a dictionary, but it doesn't make program source a normal text. The main difference is that a legal document can be evaluated and it transforms input to output; novel doesn't.