juridicalthrough

Juridicalthrough is a theoretical framework in legal studies that envisions law as a continuous throughput from interpretation to enforcement. It emphasizes that the reasoning in statutes, judicial decisions, and regulatory actions should be designed and evaluated as a single, integrated process aimed at predictable outcomes and transparent accountability.

Etymology and origin: The term combines juridical, relating to law, with through, suggesting uninterrupted flow. It has appeared in discussions of legal informatics, procedural justice, and systems-thinking approaches to law to describe a desired property of legal systems where outputs at one stage propagate effectively to subsequent stages without artificial breaks.

Core principles: Key principles include integration across stages of law, transparency of reasoning and processes, and accountability of actors across the spectrum from lawmakers to judges to regulators. Interoperability of rules and data, consistency of standards, and timeliness of decisions are emphasized, along with feedback mechanisms that enable enforcement experiences to inform interpretation and policy design.

Applications: Potential applications include reform proposals in court administration and regulatory design, as well as computational law systems that model legal workflows and support automated decision-support while preserving human oversight. Juridicalthrough concepts are used to analyze how well purposes, interpretations, and enforcement measures align in practice.

Criticism and limits: Critics warn that striving for seamless throughput can overstandardize and reduce discretionary judgment, incur high implementation costs, and create rigidity that undermines case-specific considerations. There are concerns about privacy, surveillance, and the risk that formal throughput masks legitimate delays or procedural unfairness.

See also: due process, procedural justice, administrative law, legal informatics, regulatory technology.