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Catala – Law to Code

(catala-lang.org)
116 points Grognak | 1 comments | 06 Dec 25 22:11 UTC | HN request time: 0.213s | source
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sublinear ◴[07 Dec 25 00:32 UTC] No.46178080[source]▶
> The aim is not to formalise or put into code all the law, because that would make no sense, but we are interested in the law that is already executed automatically, such as the calculation of social benefits, tax or unemployment.

Can anyone explain why it's believed this "would make no sense"?

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1. nathan_compton ◴[07 Dec 25 01:13 UTC] No.46178320[source]▶
I think the primary reason is that laws are about human convention, not real objects which one can clearly and deliberately define. Like at the most basic level nothing exists at all except for quantum fields or something like that. Everything else we talk about on a regular basis, people, dogs, streets, businesses, etc, is defined by convention to a greater or lesser degree.

It is therefore quite hard to create a formal system to refer to objects in the world in a way which induces no contradictions with intuition. This is why we have courts, among other functions of government.