Module 4

From rules to decisions: reading a rule as logic

Lawyers read rules for a living, but they usually read them to understand and argue, not to turn them into a procedure that someone else, or a program, can follow without them. That second skill is different. It asks of every rule: what facts do I need, in what order do I ask for them, what happens for each combination and what do I do when the rule is vague? A rule that cannot be written down so that two different people reach the same answer is not yet ready to automate, and finding that out is useful in itself. This module teaches the reading skill and gives you your first decision tree to build with the Decision Tree Builder and Tester.

General education on process design, using invented organisations, policies and figures. It is not legal advice. Rules in the examples are illustrations: a real policy or statute must be read from its source, and any decision logic built from it should be checked by a lawyer.