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Catala – Law to Code

Catala – Law to Code

7 comments

·December 6, 2025
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mkl

How strange to give it the same name as an unrelated natural language spoken by millions of people: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catala

embedding-shape

Not even unrelated, Catala (the law-language) seems to be a French project, supported by institutions in France, and Catalan seems to have a intertwined history with France: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalan_language#France

kimfc

Huh I just finished a book by Jaron Lanier that described a hypothetical system literally just like this. Always fun to get a coincidence like this

sublinear

> 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"?

kelvindegrees

I assume it would fail to compile, or error out, because of myriad conflicts throughout the body of laws.

side_up_down

How does this incorporate case law?

Y_Y

That's not so important in Napoleonic/Civil jurisdictions like France. Judges can consider prior rulings, but the law as-written is the main thing.