Leglis

Leglis is a term used in speculative governance and some discussions of legal technology to describe a comprehensive, machine-readable body of law intended for automated interpretation and application within digital governance platforms. It is not a single, universally adopted code; rather, it denotes a family of concepts and implementations found in fictional works as well as in thought experiments and research on computable law.

The name Leglis combines the Latin roots lex (law) and legis (of the law) to emphasize its statutory nature and its focus on legislative text as data that can be parsed by software.

Leglis codes typically organize statutes, regulations, and jurisprudence into a structured ontology with defined terms, cross-references, and metadata such as effective dates, jurisdiction, and applicability. They may include formal representations for interpretation rules, normative weights, and procedures for versioning and updates to maintain consistency across systems.

In fiction, leglis serves as a plot device for examining governance, transparency, and accountability of automated decision-making. In real-world discussions, leglis informs debates about computable law, policy ontologies, and smart-contract ecosystems. Proponents argue it enables verifiable compliance and faster adjudication, while critics warn of persistent legal ambiguity, jurisdictional fragmentation, and the risk that excessive formalization oversimplifies normative reasoning.

Related topics include computable law, legal ontologies, smart contracts, and AI governance.