公益財団法人 セコム科学技術振興財団
研究成果報告書

研究課題名

法令工学に基づく法令作成・検証の基盤構築
Development of Bases for Making and Verifying Laws Based on Legal Engineering

研究期間
平成２８年 ４月 ～ 令和２年 ３月

報告年月
令和２年 ６月
研究代表者
中央大学 国際情報学部 国際情報学科 教授
角田 篤泰
Faculty of Global Informatics, Chuo University, Professor
Tokuyasu KAKUTA

Abstract
The purpose of this research is to propose the method of making and verifying the law based on
the knowledge of legal engineering, and to provide the foundation. In the proposal, the law isregarded as a kind of software and described and handled so that the law can be handled by anengineering methodology based on the similarity between the legislative process and the softwaredevelopment process. Based on this approach, it will be possible to make use of the knowledge andtools of software engineering as well as to show the basic methodology for handling laws andregulations systematically.
In the background of the start of this research for such purposes, although law is the foundationof safety and security for the establishment and sustainment of society, the handling of laws is too
difficult for many people. Especially in the legislative field where laws and regulations are created,
due to the handing down of techniques such as craftsmanship, many government workers who are
not experts in law have to continue to prepare laws and regulations. Furthermore, regardless ofwhether it is legislative or judicial, the world of legal practice is a field of business with many analog
aspects using natural language documents as popular media, and LegalTech's tools are attracting
attention, but those tools are not still enough available.
Moreover, it cannot be said that they are widespread even in the legislative field. Also, these tools
are not designed to directly contribute to the construction of logical side, which is an essential part oflegal issues. Under such circumstances, in an increasingly sophisticated society, a rapidly changing
society, and a society in which various problems arise due to globalization, institutional development
through the legislative process requires labor and time, it prevents the state and local governmentsfrom taking prompt action. In addition, since legislative works are mainly done by hand, humanerror is likely to occur, which shakes the foundation of safety and security.
In order to address such problems, this research proposes a methodology so that laws to behandled as kinds of software based on the knowledge of legal engineering that handles laws inengineering manners. Based on this approach, we think that by systematizing the creation andverification of laws and regulations and improving efficiency and accuracy, we will be able to provide
a basis for responding to the problems described above.
The methodologies and prototype tools that have been demonstrated by this research are law
scripting method, legislation editor, legislation compiler, and law simulator. In addition to these, thelegal information data required for our research was collected and organized and became the outputof this research. In the first half of the research period, this legal information data was used inordinance databases for local governments nationwide and have been actually made public tocontribute to actual social contribution. The law scripts describe the laws in a programming
language, and in this research, we propose a description method using the programming language
Python. Since it is too difficult for the government workers to directly write such a law script, wehave provided a software called "legislative editor" that can be used on the Web to easily describe theinstitutional structure, and automatically convert it into a law script inside. The software called"legislative compiler" is to convert law scripts into ordinary law styles because law scripts cannot beused as real laws as they are in any congress. The software called "law simulator" is to utilize thefact that the law script is a computer program and directly executes the script to enable virtual
simulation of functions of institutions constructed by laws.
It can be considered that these achievements are the first step of a completely new approach tosolving the legislative problems mentioned above.