I'll still argue for bytecode (or at very least an IR of some sort, maybe an AST?)
That's mainly due to the fact that the debate about the law and the text in a law can vary wildly. I'd call the inciting incident the "source" of a law and the written law an attempt by the compiler to capture the meaning of that source.
An example is the ACA, which in principle was "Let's make sure everyone has health insurance" and in practice ended up with a humongous bill with all sorts of interesting parts.
The human readable part of the law is usually the public debates around the law. The legalese that follows can be interpreted by some people but isn't generally written for the general public.
These compilers tend to emit a lot of garbage along side the the bytecode. For example, the postscript on the DMCA talking about boat hulls of all things.
I’d agree that it could be classified as an IR. Law is definitely a domain specific subset of natural languages. Even more, each field of law can be regarded as another specific domain specific language. If you’re doing healthcare law, copyright law, criminal law etc. you need to familiarize yourself with the history, terms and mindset of that field.
That’s why lawyers also specialize and that’s why years of training are needed.
But my general opinion is, if something (a bill for example) looks much more complex than it should have been, someone engaged in lobbying to twist things in their favor. If law is left alone from personal interests, the resulting legislation are often more clear and understandable.
That's mainly due to the fact that the debate about the law and the text in a law can vary wildly. I'd call the inciting incident the "source" of a law and the written law an attempt by the compiler to capture the meaning of that source.
An example is the ACA, which in principle was "Let's make sure everyone has health insurance" and in practice ended up with a humongous bill with all sorts of interesting parts.
The human readable part of the law is usually the public debates around the law. The legalese that follows can be interpreted by some people but isn't generally written for the general public.
These compilers tend to emit a lot of garbage along side the the bytecode. For example, the postscript on the DMCA talking about boat hulls of all things.