Law as Code – A SPRIND INITIATIVE

Germany can build the world’s most modern legal system – within the current legislative period.
Efficient. Transparent. Reliable. Accessible.

MISSION

We are building a lingua franca for digital legal systems – the foundation for tomorrow’s government. A legal language for the development of a digital legal infrastructure that efficiently connects state and market, human and machine, as well as law and application.

By publishing legal norms in hybrid form – as both legal text and official legal code – we create a shared, machine-readable and automatically executable legal framework. This enables automated processes and procedures across administrative systems, industries, and platforms, based on the very same rules The legal system itself becomes the digital infrastructure and, thus, the backbone of a future-proof, efficient and interoperable society.

STATUS QUO: WHERE GERMANY STANDS

Today, Germany still publishes its laws as analogue legal text. At the same time, for over 25 years, Germany aims at enabling a digital application of its laws. In order to do so, the current common political goal is making law digital-ready (in German: digitaltauglich).

This describes a system in which each user must individually translate the legal text into digital applications. As a consequence, two fundamental and systematic problems arise:

  • First, thousands of actors duplicate the same legal texts. This leads to massive inefficiency.
  • Second, users work with different digital languages, formats and structures. This mechanism systemically hinders standardization and interoperability.

These structural deficits contribute to the fact that the functionality and efficiency of the government (on all levels) is at the center of today’s political debate.

THE APPROACH OF LAW AS CODE

We are driving a fundamental paragidm shift: legal norms will not only be published as analogue legal text, but also as official executable and machine-readable legal code. Doing so, the law becomes a digital resource of the state. The legal code will be made directly usable and integrable for public administrations, businesses and civil society.

At its core lies a single, standardized source: the official legal code. It replaces individual and decentralized translations as well as complex integrations with a unified reference. Public administrations, businesses and civil society can directly integrate this legal code into their systems – without custom translation or programming activities. Standardized interfaces, exchange formats and data structures are defined in a uniform, open and comprehensible manner. The legal code forms the basis for process automation. This turns the legal system into the digital infrastructure of a modern, interoperable and efficient society.

SYSTEMIC BENEFITS OF LAW AS CODE

Law as Code eliminates redundant digitization efforts and, thus, systemic waste.. All users access the same legal code provided by the state. Changes and updates to the law are distributed and applied uniformly. Legal processes becomes modular and reusable. This saves resources and accelerates the implementation of the law. The result: the state becomes the operator of its own modern legal infrastructure.

Common data structures, interfaces and semantic standards create technical standards – not through regulation, but through adoption. This creates a uniform reference architecture on which public administrations, businesses and civil society can seamlessly collaborate across systems and industries – without integration effort or media discontinuities. The result: a modular, connectable infrastructure as the basis of an open, future-proof ecosystem.

Law as Code fundamentally improves the quality of laws: Machine-readable translation makes ambiguities, inconsistencies and logical breaks visible. Doing so, this approach leads to more precise and more structured legislation. Law as Code creates the basis for an adaptive and evidence-based legal system: This digital legal infrastructure enables new forms of evaluation and simulation. Meta data shows where regulations fail or need to be adapted. Changes can be tested in advance. The result: an evidence-based, responsive governance.

Law as Code enables a significantly higher degree of the digital application of the law – system-wide and scalable. The creation of unified digital processes dramatically decrease time-consuming application processes, manual submissions and examinations, as well as media discontinuities. Unlike conventional approaches, Law As Code scales. The result: public administrations, businesses and civil society benefit from noticeably reduced compliance efforts.

FOUNDATIONAL ELEMENTS FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF LAW AS CODE

To build the most modern legal system, Germany needs to implement the following foundational elements:

  1. Definition of a legal code

    The definition of a uniform structure for legal code in the context of machine-readable and executable legal norms forms the central foundation for Law as Code. It ensures compatibility, reusability and legal certainty. The legal code defines binding interfaces, exchange formats and data structures. This makes the law itself a digital resource of the state that public administrations, businesses and civil society can use and integrate directly.

  2. Open-source legal coding editors

    In order to translate existing laws into legal code and to develop new laws directly as legal code, we need open-source editors (software). These editors need to be freely available to all stakeholders. They form the basis for the hybrid publication of law. In addition, these editors offer the possibility to configure procedures for the application of the legal codes.

  3. AI-powered legal coding processes

    Specialized AI tools assist in translating existing legal texts into legal code. These tools speed up implementation, reduce complexity and scale the process from legal text to legal code.

  4. Central repository of the official legal code

    A digital repository offers structured and open access to the legal code, according to the concept of Public money. Public code. It is the single source of truth for law in action – for public administrations, business and civil society. Doing so, it promotes efficiency, reuse, transparency and collaboration.

  5. Training and capacity building

    A training program teaches the necessary skills in the context of development and application of the legal code. It creates a common understanding and enables the sovereign development and application of the legal code. This enables stakeholders to build competence and ensure sustainable adoption.

DIRECTION OF THE INITIATIVE

SPRIND promotes bold, visionary approaches that enable breakthrough innovation. With Law as Code, we aim at fundamentally reimagining the legal system for the digital age. We connect the relevant stakeholders, visualize the potential and the requirements of the approach. We also aim at accompanying the implementation process – always with the focus on the greatest possible societal benefit through the realization of breakthrough innovation.

GET INVOLVED

Law as Code is a project for society as a whole. Its success depends on the collaboration across disciplines and sectors. The knowledge, experience and perspectives of many are needed.

We invite all relevant actors – practitioners, legal developers, standardizers, technology providers, civil organizations and political decision-makers – to actively participate.

In particular, we invite associations, municipalities, representatives on state-level and other institutions to get involved – with questions, ideas, critical feedback and conceptual impulses. Joint efforts are needed to succeed in developing a legal system that meets the challenges of the digital society – efficient, inclusive and future-proof.

We are going to offer various formats to participate – from open expert dialogs to prototyping sessions to co-creation of technical and semantic standards.

Team

SPRIND pursues the initiative Law As Code with high priority. Our team drives key developments and represents the initiative to the outside world. We are very much looking forward to your engagement and your commitment.

  1. Dr. Hakke Hansen, LL.M.

    hakke.hansen@sprind.org
    LinkedIn

    Head of the Law as Code initiative

    • Hakke heads the Law as Code initiative of SPRIND.
    • Previously, for almost two decades, he worked as a founder, project developer and consultant on the realization of disruptive ventures in the education sector, in economic development and in the digital economy.
    • Hakke studied law and economics in Germany, Italy and the USA and received his doctorate from the Max Planck Institute in the field of economic analysis of law.

  2. Jörg Resch

    joerg.resch@sprind.org
    LinkedIn

    Innovation Manager with a focus on the Future of the Country

    • Jörg supports the Law as Code initiative in its strategic-technological orientation.
    • Previously, he led an analyst firm in the field of cybersecurity and digital identity and was a founder in the field of deep tech and (open source) software development.
    • Jörg studied administrative sciences and began his professional career as a civil servant at the Federal Foreign Office.

  3. Sami Yacob

    sami.yacob@sprind.org
    LinkedIn

    Legal expert of the Law as Code initiative

    • Sami is Legal Counsel at SPRIND. He acts as legal expert for the Law as Code initiative.
    • Before joining SPRIND, he worked at the German federal government’s digitalization unit (DigitalService GmbH des Bundes) and gained experience in a legal tech start-up as well as in a strategy and management consultancy. Besides, he contributes to civil society initiatives driving the digital transformation of law.
    • Sami studied law at the Humboldt University of Berlin and Trinity College Dublin.
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